Feb. 11, 2026, 6:15 a.m. PT
Despite all of the changes to college football over the past decade, it’s surprising that the NCAA hasn’t been able to find a more sensible scheduling format for the College Football Playoff. The long-winded postseason lacks momentum and the potential fixes aren’t all that complex.
USA TODAY Sports writer Matt Hayes gave his two cents on the matter, suggesting a one week earlier start date to the season which would allow for a New Year’s Day national championship game.
“This season, the NFL — a financial goldmine of success and popularity — will play 13 playoff games in 30 days, finishing the annual joy ride Sunday with Super Bowl LX. Clean, neat, efficient,” Hayes writes. “Next season, College football — a financial whirlwind of the overwhelmed, stuck in a glass booth cash grab and frantically stabbing at anything that moves — will play 11 College Football Playoff games in 39 days. Dirty, messy, inefficient.”
These extended CFP breaks creates excuses for programs and takes away from the drama that unfolds on the field, as well as just being annoying for the average fan who doesn’t understand why the national title game was played on Monday, January 19th this year.
20 years ago, the entire current college football landscape looked entirely different. Why not embrace the change and try to find the optimal way to have the season unfold?
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“The postseason is everything in all sports. It determines champions, it delivers drama, it’s what television craves. It earns big, big dollars. Yet those in charge of college football can’t stop mucking it up,” Hayes said. “This has nothing to do with the number of teams in the CFP, it has everything to do with when the dang thing is played. That’s the most important piece to this puzzle going largely ignored.”
We’ll see how long it takes the NCAA to realize that shortening the length of the postseason will lead to more of a frenzy surrounding the sport.