Spencer Thomas | editor-in-chief

College football, ever hectic and controversial, remains a beautiful and enticing product that generates enough money to fuel continuous upheaval in the college world. This regular season, which came to an end on Saturday, was no different. As the list of championship suiters narrows down, here are my four biggest takeaways from the 2024 season.
The 12-team playoff creates chaos at the expense of jeopardy

Remember in 2013, when Alabama was 11-0, looking for a third consecutive national title, but lost on a miracle play on the road to fourth-ranked Auburn, and that meant their championship hopes were over? With only two teams competing for a title, and two other unbeaten teams, Alabama bowed out of the conversation, and nobody complained. Eleven years later, a three-loss Crimson Tide are coming out on top of heated debates about who gets the final spot of the playoff that has sextupled in size. In the past, its Oct. 5 loss at 6-6 Vanderbilt would have been a death sentence. Now, it’s being compared with the upset losses Miami suffered.

While the 12-team bracket will create some unforgettable moments and give opportunities to smaller schools like Boise State and Indiana, it does so by completely devaluing the regular season. Ohio State’s upset loss to Michigan would have been the most devastating in program history if they weren’t still guaranteed a playoff spot. I miss that level of excitement. You want to see the best teams in the country playing week-in and week-out with their season on the line, and as long as Alabama is safe until their fourth loss, that will never happen again.
The rivalry week fighting was ridiculous

The traditional rivalry week brought more fireworks than ever, with nearly a dozen games seeing opposing players trade punches. It began with a massive brawl between Ohio State and Michigan players that was only quelled when police maced the athletes. I’ll be the first to admit that was absolutely electric and had me standing up and clapping at the TV. Seeing Ohioan and Buckeye Captain Jack Sawyer on the verge of tears watching Michigan celebrate on the field he spent his whole life living for was a beautifully tragic moment.

However, then it happened again, and again, and again. By the end of the day, it wasn’t even scrapping between bitter rivals, just random teams frustrated at the end of the season. The realization dawned on me that the players acting like this were not doing so out of a bitter hatred for their rival. They would be playing for the other team had they been offered a single cent more of NIL money. Many hadn’t even been with their school all along, but rather transferred in.
 When Texas players had to be pulled from stomping on the Texas A&M logo after the game, they may have been rivals, but nobody on the field was more than 11 years old the last time the “Lone Star Showdown” was played. They didn’t care about the rivalry; they’re just cosplaying as bitter enemies who were born into the feuds of yesteryear. In reality, players are just looking for an excuse to act like clowns and be disrespectful to their opponent. It was clear teams were fighting just for the sake of fighting, which is when it crosses the boundary of heated competition to a stain on the purity of the game.
Ryan Day should stay

Despite going 66-10 over 5 years, Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day may have the hottest seat in college football. After losing his fourth straight edition of “The Game” versus Michigan, Ohio State fans want blood. Never mind that they’re still a lock for the playoff, as loud and large portions of the fanbase wants him gone because of recent struggles in a rivalry that his predecessors had dominated. There was talk all offseason about whether he “gets it.” The intangible understanding of what the rivalry means, and how winning it outweighs nearly every other objective that the Buckeyes have. Before the game, Day said that besides his father killing himself, losing to Michigan was one of the worst things to happen to his family. Sounds to me like he “gets it.”

The notion that Day should lose his job is ridiculous. He holds a 45-1 record against the rest of the Big 10, the only loss being a 3-point game at undefeated Oregon in October. If Buckeye fans’ reasoning for ditching Day is that he has some curse that renders him unable to beat Michigan, they should feel awfully confident, since the Wolverines aren’t in the playoff. Michigan stuck by Jim Harbaugh when he started 0-5 in the rivalry and were rewarded when he shook that reputation by finishing 3-0 versus the Buckeyes and winning a national championship.

If Day is fired, all but a handful of programs in the country would consider him as an upgrade for their job. That alone should cause Ohio State fans to put down the pitchforks and torches.