College sports and especially college football has seen an incredible amount of change over even just the last half decade, from NIL to the transfer portal to conference re-alignment and everything in between.

Two years ago though, the most radical change on the field came with the way a champion was crowned with the expansion of the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12 teams, opening up Pandora’s Box for a seismic wave of transformation of the very fabric of the sport.

After the first two years of the new playoff system, most who were casting doom and gloom over expansion’s impact on the regular season have been largely proven wrong with the 12-team format proving popular among fans, however the impact it has had on the regular season’s importance and conference title games cannot be understated.

Now, further expansion to 16 or even 24 teams looks to be coming, and while the 12-team format chipped away at things, 24 would completely overwhelm it.

Part of what makes college football so special is the stakes that every single game in the regular season held. The Kick Six was as iconic as it was not just because Auburn beat Alabama in dramatic fashion, but because it ended Alabama’s chances at a third straight national title and instead gave Auburn the chance to play for it, all in the matter of less than a minute.

The SEC Championship, a game that just two years ago vaulted Alabama into the playoff and knocked a Georgia team that had won 29 straight games going into it and ended their own pursuit of a three-peat, has been played the last two seasons without any real stakes on the line, and now looks like its on its way out entirely.

In a regular season game or even a conference title, stakes like this are now unfathomable, and if the playoff expands further, we only become more removed from having significant meaning to every single Saturday in the fall.

College football is distinctly different from the professional ranks in the NFL and really every other sport in that every Saturday is do or die, but expanding the playoff gets away from that and essentially allows teams second and third tries when they slip up.

Instead of a national title game or playoff being the cherry on top to an exciting regular season where every week is essentially a playoff game, the postseason is being made into the meat of the meal.

While not everyone is upset about that fact, it’s a complete diverting from everything that makes the sport so special, unique and heart stopping.

Ultimately, change is inevitable, but just like every other change the last decade in college sports from decision makers who don’t seem to have to show their face and justify their stances, the fan is the one who pays the ultimate price.