[OutsiderFan]

It would never happen, but the humane and right thing to do would have been to call the game as soon as UGA scored the first TD of the second half to make it 45-7. That was Stanford vs. Utah on the farm a couple years ago bad.  TCU had too good of a season than to have to sit there and suffer humiliation longer than it needed. Women's Softball has a mercy rule for a reason. Why not football, especially given the physical risk the players are at while playing in football games? Maybe when one team is up by 43 points, the game ends?

Anyway, that aside, for those thinking "this proves how silly it is to have an expanded playoff if the best team is so much better than everyone else," not so fast. Assuming college football players want to win championships, expanding the number of teams who can get in the tournament will dilute the concentration of talent at the top to some degree and spread it wider across more teams.  As of now, if your name is not Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame, and a few others, you simply aren't getting the best players. In theory the top players are choosing those schools in droves because only a few schools make the playoff and they tend to be the ones who make it. If that changes so there are 12 or 16 eligible playoff teams, then there is a lot more competition for talent because then mostly every team can make an argument they can make the playoff field.

It's not healthy for the sport when there are 5-6 teams landing 50% of the best players. The SEC can think they can break away from the rest of the NCAA and have its own championship, but this isn't the UK and the Premier League. College Football is interesting because there are teams competing from all over a much larger country.  If the SEC were to do its own thing, top level College Football will become a regional sport. The SEC knows this, which is why they want the expanded playoff and for more programs outside the SEC to have a chance. 

But there are so many issues facing College Football at the moment, playoff formats isn't even among the top 5 of them. NIL, Transfer Portal, recruiting, conference alignment and where it is all going, having the top division break away from the NCAA, paying players, salary caps for players and coaches, are all far bigger fish to fry.

[OutsiderFan]

It would never happen, but the humane and right thing to do would have been to call the game as soon as UGA scored the first TD of the second half to make it 45-7. That was Stanford vs. Utah on the farm a couple years ago bad.  TCU had too good of a season than to have to sit there and suffer humiliation longer than it needed. Women's Softball has a mercy rule for a reason. Why not football, especially given the physical risk the players are at while playing in football games? Maybe when one team is up by 43 points, the game ends?

Anyway, that aside, for those thinking "this proves how silly it is to have an expanded playoff if the best team is so much better than everyone else," not so fast. Assuming college football players want to win championships, expanding the number of teams who can get in the tournament will dilute the concentration of talent at the top to some degree and spread it wider across more teams.  As of now, if your name is not Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame, and a few others, you simply aren't getting the best players. In theory the top players are choosing those schools in droves because only a few schools make the playoff and they tend to be the ones who make it. If that changes so there are 12 or 16 eligible playoff teams, then there is a lot more competition for talent because then mostly every team can make an argument they can make the playoff field.

It's not healthy for the sport when there are 5-6 teams landing 50% of the best players. The SEC can think they can break away from the rest of the NCAA and have its own championship, but this isn't the UK and the Premier League. College Football is interesting because there are teams competing from all over a much larger country.  If the SEC were to do its own thing, top level College Football will become a regional sport. The SEC knows this, which is why they want the expanded playoff and for more programs outside the SEC to have a chance. 

But there are so many issues facing College Football at the moment, playoff formats isn't even among the top 5 of them. NIL, Transfer Portal, recruiting, conference alignment and where it is all going, having the top division break away from the NCAA, paying players, salary caps for players and coaches, are all far bigger fish to fry.