For several years there has been a cry, repeated time and time again by college football fans across the country: “I’m tired of seeing the same teams at the top every season.”
While a statement like this can sometimes be overstated, it’s mostly true of college football, where there have only been 13 different teams in the college football playoffs since its inception. Four teams (Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma) have all made the playoffs at least four times in their eight years of existence.
This continued dominance of top programming has left fans, media and even football pundits begging for more parity and extended playoffs to give more teams a chance to compete for a national championship.
While the extended playoffs seem like an inevitable outcome, the 2022 college football season has shown that parity may return to college football.
Currently, none of the four teams above are undefeated, and with Ohio State losing to Michigan last Saturday, it’s highly likely that none of them will finish in the top four of the upcoming College Football Playoff Committee rankings.
The number of teams being mooted for the college football playoffs is somewhere in the double digits, and programs like TCU and USC have great odds of making the playoffs for the first time.
And even though the Alabama Crimson Tide lost two regular-season games before the Iron Bowl for the first time since 2010, they still have a shot at becoming the first two-losing team to make the college football playoffs if it does so soon Chaos should come weekend.
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And so, despite the increased parity this season, which has many college football fans excited to see new blood in the mix, there’s a chance the big bad Alabama Crimson Tide could sneak into the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years .
All will be settled in a week, and it will be interesting to see if the result will have the college football world celebrating increased “parity” or begging for the extended playoffs to come faster than ever .
Watch the video at the top of the page as BamaCentral’s Clay Miller and Christopher Walsh discuss the increased parity in college football this season.
See also:
Everything Nick Saban Said After Alabama Won the Iron Bowl
Alabama Football Coaches Name 12 Player of the Week After Iron Bowl Victory
Depth of Alabama Basketball Shows Up in 4OT Win the No. 1 from North Carolina
Ready to see your favorite Crimson Tide players? Check out SI tickets.