College playoffs looks for good matchups after snoozy first round of blowouts
Sports
One part that did feel like a success was that the stands were full in all four stadiums
TEXAS (AP) – For those who dozed through it, or flipped to more compelling fare in the NFL, here’s a brief recap of the rollout of the much-anticipated College Football Playoff.
Average final score: Winners 36, Losers 17.
In four games, not a single one was closer than a 10-point margin, and even that one felt worse. In 240 minutes of action spread across those four games, there was a grand total of one lead change.
This bold, new experiment was supposed to bring more programs from more parts of the country into the loop of a largely regional sport that had been dominated by about a half-dozen teams for the last decade.
Instead, it will take another 10 days to find out if “more” really means more — or if more just means a few weeks of what we just saw before arriving at what we had before — a group of four contenders battling it out for a title that only they had any realistic chance to win.
One part that did feel like a success was that the stands were full in all four stadiums — at Texas, Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State.
“I think college football got this one right,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said after the Longhorns beat Clemson 38-24 in front of a packed house in what turned out to be the weekend’s most compelling game. “As much as we critique some of the things that are happening in our game right now, this idea of a home playoff game with this 12-team format, this was pretty special.”
The TV ratings will paint a fuller picture, especially of the decision to run directly against two NFL games, both of which came down to the fourth quarter.
