College Football's Week 1 Slate Thins to 1 Top-25 Game as 12-Team Playoff Rewards Safer Scheduling
Updated
Updated · USA TODAY · Aug 28
College Football's Week 1 Slate Thins to 1 Top-25 Game as 12-Team Playoff Rewards Safer Scheduling
3 articles · Updated · USA TODAY · Aug 28
Summary
Labor Day weekend will feature just one AP Top-25 matchup, with the report calling Weeks 0 and 1 a missed showcase for college football.
The main driver is the 12-team playoff: Big Ten and SEC programs can chase 10 wins and a berth by avoiding risky nonconference games, and some Big Ten teams skip Power Four opponents entirely.
Two fixes are proposed — a Big Ten-SEC challenge with at least a dozen games across Weeks 0 to 2, or 10-game conference schedules that replace one cupcake with an early league matchup.
The argument is that playoff expansion has weakened, not strengthened, marquee scheduling compared with earlier eras such as 2016, and a future 24-team field could push schools even further toward soft schedules.