Remember when San Diego State thought they were getting a Pac-12 invite, only to see the Pac-12 dissolve? I think we can agree that that part of last summer’s realignment was funny. Why do I bring this up? Well, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez mentioned the NIT today, and every time I think of Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez, I think of Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez bullying San Diego State into legal concessions following the Aztecs’ Pac-12 Panic. That rocked.
Nevarez said a proposed Group of Five playoff could be “like an NIT of football” in a Yahoo report this morning. Was she correct?
Not really. This is mean, but the NIT is more selective than a Group of Five playoff would be, especially if the best Group of Five team plays in the College Football Playoff like they will this year. A playoff for the second through fifth-best Group of Five teams is in the same genre as the NIT, but calling it the NIT is like calling the NFC South the NIT: It underrates the NIT’s level of competition.
College football’s real NITs remain the Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl. They’re historic. One is scenic. Their champions are generally around the 90th percentile of performers within their sport. With the New Year’s Six all folded into the CFP, the Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl will even be taking some of the first available non-playoff teams this year, which is why so many people are excited about the 12-team playoff. College football has an NIT, and it’s the Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl, and it’s ok that you didn’t know that but to be clear, we’ve been discussing this for years. (Full backstory: Sometimes the Citrus Bowl has made it into the discussion.)
Should the Group of Five have its own playoff? Yes, absolutely, that would be fun. But where the Group of Five continues to limit itself is by trying to make this a postseason event. Move it up a few weeks!
What the Group of Five should do is make sure whichever mid-major makes the CFP is really the best mid-major in the country. Give your people a chance. Don’t limit yourself to 2023 Liberty. How to do this? Play the conference championships three weeks earlier. Spend the next three weeks holding an eight-team playoff for the best Group of Five teams. It would be fun, and it would help the Group of Five, and I know this is scheduling heresy but these guys handled variable schedules just fine during Covid. It’s not like anyone’s making money off of Charlotte fans knowing in advance which week they play Temple.
In sum:
The Group of Five should have a playoff.
It should not just be an extra playoff alongside the FCS Playoffs and the College Football Playoff.
The hypothetical Group of Five playoff would not be college football’s NIT. We already have that. It’s named the Gator Bowl and the Sun Bowl.
