Welcome to the CFP era, where logic dies and chaos reigns

Imagine a college football fan who was shipwrecked on a remote island five years ago.

They've been rescued and are returning to civilization this week, just in time for the conference championship games.

Which do you think would be more surprising to our survivor: that Indiana is playing Ohio State for the Big Ten championship, or that it doesn't really matter who wins?

These would be far from the only confusing developments, even after you explained that the College Football Playoff has 12 teams now. Duke, with five losses, will play Virginia for the ACC title even though Miami, with two losses, is widely considered the best team in the conference. Alabama probably has to defeat Georgia in the SEC title game to secure a spot in the CFP, despite having already beaten the Bulldogs this season. Oh, and Ole Miss got into the CFP after a historic 11-win season but lost its coach to LSU after Lane Kiffin became the hottest candidate in the sport. Lane Kiffin!

College football in 2025: Nothing Makes Sense Anymore.

None of this is intended as nostalgia for the good old days, mind you. The Kiffin saga alone, with a conference rival poaching a coach midseason for a $100-million payday, is all the evidence needed to prove a college system that exploited players for decades had to change. If coaches can be ruthless mercenaries who only look out for themselves, at least now players can earn money while playing and change schools if desired.

But we can still acknowledge that the sport's chaotic new order is taking some time to get used to.

In just the second year of its 12-team format, the CFP seems to have rendered conference championship weekend nearly pointless. That Ohio State-Indiana game could be a corker, but with both teams undefeated and holding the top two spots in the playoff rankings, only bragging rights and playoff seeding are at stake. BYU could play its way into the CFP with a win over fourth-seeded Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, but like Duke in the ACC, the Cougars are more likely to be swept aside by a stronger opponent in an anticlimactic finish.

Conference expansion is partly to blame. Schools now play unbalanced schedules and, as was the case for Ohio State and Indiana, spend a lot of time beating up on lesser teams. The SEC has the opposite problem: There are so many good teams now that it's nearly impossible to get through a season unscathed. Alabama's playoff fate has been compromised by a loss to Oklahoma, which might be the sixth-best team in the conference.

The 17-team ACC, meanwhile, is so unwieldy that Miami, with a 6-2 conference record, misses out on a league championship shot even though the Hurricanes beat Notre Dame, which is currently inside the playoff bubble. Miami's chances were also compromised by the playoff committee releasing its first rankings just as the Hurricanes hit a low point with losses to Louisville and SMU. They finished the season well, but climbing up from that initial No. 18 has proven difficult. (Miami is 12th but will likely end up outside the playoff after the results of a weekend in which the team doesn't play.)

No system is perfect, but the playoff committee's made-for-TV rankings, which only exist to drive interest and discussion about the postseason event, shouldn't be unveiled until all the games have been played. If you're going to have a 12-team playoff, wouldn't it make more sense to wait until everyone's season is finished and then just pick what looks like the 12 best teams?

Or maybe there's no point in trying to fix anything. Embrace the chaos! There were reports Thursday that Vanderbilt, ranked outside the playoff at 14th, was considering adding a last-minute bonus game to its schedule Saturday, one more chance to impress the playoff committee's voters. On one hand, that's insane. Why not just host a skills competition or perform feats of strength if you're trying to buff your credentials? On the other hand, the rankings are full of questionable subjective decisions anyway - what's one more piece of data thrown on the pile?

Texas A&M lost to Texas last week to fall from third to seventh in the rankings, which actually might benefit the Aggies with rest instead of a physical SEC title game contest. Alabama jumped ahead of Notre Dame in the rankings by beating a 5-6 Auburn team by seven points, despite the fact the Irish also were victorious with a 29-point triumph over Stanford. Oh, and Vanderbilt didn't move up at all, even though it beat an 8-3 Tennessee team by 21 points on the road.

Come to think of it, these are the kind of arguments that have happened in every college football season, long before anyone uttered the word "playoff."

Some things, as that shipwrecked fan could tell you, never change.

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.