Change seems likely amid frustration with college football playoff

Seven years into its existence, the postseason system that replaced the Bowl Championship Series is starting to produce levels of frustration, and in some cases contempt, among fans and competitors that ultimately crushed the BCS.

Texas A&M is upset about not making the final four.

Indiana is mad about being left out of the New Year’s Six.

Group of Five teams are more disrespected than ever as it has become abundantly clear they are not even given serious consideration for the College Football Playoff.

And it’s not just the CFP that was ticking folks off Sunday. The whole bowl system got exposed for being a sham that has nothing do with rewarding deserving teams when Army (9-2) was left without an opponent for the postseason while nine teams with losing records — including 2-8 South Carolina — got games.

“What I can tell you is the reason there are complaints, and I say it with a smile on my face, it’s because people care,” said Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, the chairman of the playoff selection committee. “They care a lot.”

True. The backbone of the sport, its economic engine, is the passion fans have for it. But if too many customers — and participants — are upset, it’s no longer a laughing matter.

To be sure, some of this is just typical whining that will never go away. The concept of people reasonably disagreeing about a subjective process has gone out the window. Sure, Texas A&M had a case to be

No. 4. But only those analyzing it through marooncolored glasses would claim the Aggies were robbed.

Still, the mighty Southeastern Conference not getting the benefit of the doubt for once could be a good thing. The only conference before this year to place two teams in one final four has become the staunchest public supporter of the status quo.

A little disappointment might motivate the SEC to push for change. It certainly had that effect in the Big Ten after a couple of seasons in which its champion was shut out.

The Atlantic Coast Conference put two teams in this season’s Jan. 1 semifinals, with No. 1 Alabama facing Notre Dame in Arlington, Texas, and Clemson-Ohio State in New Orleans.

Fighting Irish football is only crashing on the ACC’s couch during this season turned upside down by a pandemic, but the conference will cash two $6 million checks just the same for having two semifinalists.

While the final call for the committee came down to Notre Dame or Texas A&M, it was Ohio State’s inclusion after a six-game season that seemed to be drawing most of the fans’ ire and some not-so-subtle second-guessing from coaches.

“I think the games matter,” Clemson’s Dabo Swinney said. “The mental and physical toll of a season — there’s nobody out there that would say that somebody who’s played 11 games versus somebody who’s played six is better physically or something like that because it’s a long season.”