Playoff Results Highlight Major Scheduling Problem For College Football

Although Oregon benefited greatly from the College Football Playoff's bizarre scheduling procedures, head coach Dan Lanning imparted some wise words prior to his team's victory over Texas Tech on New Year's Day. 

"Every playoff game should be played every single weekend until you finish the season," Lanning said. "Even if it means we start Week 0 or you eliminate a bye, the season ends January 1, and then the portal opens, then coaches that have to move on to their next opportunities get to move to their next opportunities."

As the No. 5 seed, the Ducks played a first-round game against James Madison on December 20. Oregon easily defeated the overmatched Dukes, 51-34, to advance to the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. 

That's where Texas Tech, the No. 4 seed and final school to receive a first-round College Football Playoff bye, awaited. Unlike Oregon, Texas Tech hadn't played an actual football game since a Big 12 Championship victory over BYU on December 6. That meant the Red Raiders went 26 days without playing, and it showed. 

The Raiders' offense couldn't get anything going, and the Ducks rolled to a 23-0 victory. 

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning had some strong words about the current College Football Playoff scheduling procedures. 

(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

This could be excused as a one-off, but it's quickly becoming a pattern in the College Football Playoff. Since the new 12-team format started last season, all six teams that received a first-round bye lost their first game in the CFP. It's starting to look like those coveted byes are more of a curse than a blessing. 

On New Year's Eve, No. 10 Miami beat No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl Classic. The Hurricanes were the fifth straight lower-ranked team to beat a higher-ranked team in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The Ducks became the sixth with their win over Texas Tech. 

Update: No. 1 Indiana defeated No. 8 Alabama in the Rose Bowl Game, becoming the first higher-seeded team to win a College Football Playoff quarterfinal since the field expanded to 12 teams. Lower-seeded teams are 6-1 in the CFP Quarterfinals, pending the result of the Sugar Bowl between No. 3 Georgia and No. 6 Ole Miss. 

NFL Is Dictating College Football's Terrible CFP Schedule 

Lanning acknowledged that one of the key factors in the strange College Football Playoff scheduling process is the NFL. 

"I've got a ton of respect for the NFL, but we're a prep league for the NFL," Lanning said. "We do a lot of favors for the NFL. We're the minor league in a lot of ways, but there's no money paid from the NFL to take care of college football.

"We've given up some of our days to the NFL. We said, 'Oh, you guys get to have this day, you get to have this day, you get to have this day.' Saturday should be sacred for college football, and every Saturday through the month of December should belong to college football."

Lanning is correct; the NFL avoids scheduling games on Saturdays during the college football regular season. However, once the regular season ends, the NFL jumps on the opportunity. Starting in Week 16, the NFL schedules games on Saturdays through the Divisional Round of the playoffs. 

This season, the NFL played two games on Saturday, December 20, and two games on Saturday, December 27. There are two games scheduled for January 3 and the league will play two Wild Card games on January 10 and two Divisional Round games on January 17. 

First-round byes are hurting College Football Playoff teams and the sport needs to adapt quickly before its postseason becomes a complete joke. 

The College Football Playoff competed with the NFL on December 20, and it didn't end well for college football. The two games played at the same time as NFL games were without comparison the lowest-rated games of the playoffs thus far. Part of that was due to having two Group of 5 teams, James Madison and Tulane, getting blown out by Power 5 schools Oregon and Ole Miss. 

With the NFL holding games on Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays during the late weeks of the season, it doesn't leave college football with much room to feature its games. 

Even still, college football needs to rethink the current format. Not only do the Top 4 teams receive a first-round bye, they don't get the benefit of playing a home game in the playoffs. That right only goes to the teams ranked 5-8, who each get to host a first-round game on their own campuses. 

It's starting to look like those 5-8 slots are more valuable than the Top 4, and that indicates a real problem within the current process. 

What's the Solution? 

Lanning offered the best solution, and it's one that wouldn't be that difficult to implement. The Top 4 teams in the College Football Playoff almost always compete in their conference's championship game. This year, that meant those teams all played on Saturday, December 6. 

Lanning suggested that college football look to condense its schedule, perhaps by eliminating a bye week or having every team start in "Week 0." Let's say they went with that model; it would have moved conference championships up to November 29. 

If the playoffs had started the following weekend, the quarterfinals could have been played the weekend of December 13. There's also the issue of the Army-Navy game, which typically gets its own Saturday each season. That would be difficult to keep if Lanning's plan came to fruition. 

Mario Cristobal led the Miami Hurricanes to a win over the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2025 College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the 90th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, becoming the fifth-straight lower-seeded team to win a CFP quarterfinal game.

(Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

But if we play out this scenario, the semifinals would have been played on December 20. That would have set up perfectly for a New Year's Day College Football Playoff National Championship. And, as Lanning noted, the problem isn't just the layoff for teams in the playoff. There's also the issue of coaches taking new jobs and players wishing to enter the transfer portal, which opens on January 2. 

"Our national championship game this year is Jan. 19, and that's really hard to envision as a coach that's going out and trying to join a new program and start a staff," Lanning said. "It's hard for players to understand what continuity looks like and where they're going to be at and to manage that with visits, the portal, everything else that exists. The clear way to do that is to bump the season up and make sure these playoff games happen a lot faster."

It's hard to disagree with anything Lanning said, especially given the results thus far in the College Football Playoff. It also doesn't seem that difficult for college football to implement some changes to make it work better for everyone involved. 

To be fair to college football, the 12-team playoff is brand new, and it's impossible to foresee every potential issue. But we have enough information to know that the current format is problematic.