We used to argue, and now we complain. Sure, we complained back in the day, too, but mostly we complained about the fact that we had to argue — about which teams were best in college football, because we didn’t have a way to actually decide that.

Now we do. And maybe this is just the skewed perspective of a semi-mature but still very youthful (in non-obvious ways) observer who remembers waiting to see who the writers and coaches would “vote as national champion.” But the whining is out of control, you whiners.

Of course, there are valid complaints. The 12-team College Football Playoff isn’t perfect. It can improve. It should be scrutinized. No one is asking for mindless acceptance.

The past week and change, though, culminating with a first-round weekend that should have been more of a celebration, felt like one torturous car ride with a 4-year-old who couldn’t stop screaming. About an ice cream cone that melted all over his fingers. Because he didn’t finish fast enough. Because he had to eat two ice cream cones. Because he demanded two. Because he couldn’t decide on a flavor.

Let’s review these complaints, in order from most ridiculous to most valid.

‘My Notre Dame Fighting Irish could beat both of these teams.’

Yes, Notre Dame Twitter was all over that low-scoring, college kicker-exposing affair between Miami and Texas A&M. And maybe it was an army of troll accounts, to be disregarded like those posing as newsbreakers and giving us, “Breaking: Rich Rod rises to top of Michigan’s list.” But if even a single Notre Dame fan was serious about this … your team lost to both of those teams.

Watching a game where Notre Dame would beat both teams lmao

— Irish Muse (@NdMuse) December 20, 2025

‘Half of these games were blowouts! That’s not how tournaments are supposed to be!’

Right, except the most celebrated American sporting event of all, the Super Bowl, has been decided by double figures 35 of 59 times, with some real beauties thrown in there. How about Russell Wilson’s 2013 team playing Alabama to Peyton Manning’s FCS team trying to hang in a buy game? The four-team CFP was chock full of blowouts. All postseasons have tons of them.

But somehow that’s an affront to the very idea of competition when it happens in the College Football Playoff.

‘Let’s gather all these Group of 5 teams and let them have their own tournament.’

Sounds like the FCS playoffs. If they didn’t want to be FBS teams, I’m sure they’d happily be part of that. Variations of G5-related crying dominated the conversation for the past few days. It’s not the worst of all the complaints because it is less than ideal that we had two such teams in this field — blame the ACC — and unfortunately, they were not the best possible G5 hopefuls, and it showed.

I still think South Florida at its best this season could have won a game in this thing or made a real run at it, but the Bulls had some costly failures, and we’ll never know. I’m confident better G5 showings will happen in the future, even in the roster-raiding era.

As colleague David Ubben wrote, raising the bar a bit on a G5 team’s inclusion may be a good idea. But as colleague Stewart Mandel wrote, the collective college football media uproar about this has been out of hand.

I expect this from fans of teams that were left out. Or from Nick Saban, who now owns part of a hockey team and thinks everyone but the top of the SEC should be relegated to Strat-O-Matic football as a postseason fate. But have any of the same media members complaining about this considered that removing G5 access would be — on top of an antitrust issue — the exact same kind of shortsighted move, disenfranchising large swaths of the country, that the suits have been pushing on the sport to its long-term detriment? And that the same media members have been complaining about these suits and that mindset for years?

I don’t know if we’ll ever get an upset, or even a serious run at one, in a game like Tulane at Ole Miss or James Madison at Oregon. But I’d like to find out, because I know those are some of the very best moments sports has to offer. This tournament and the NCAA Tournament don’t compare perfectly, because an overmatched football team has much less of a chance than an undersized No. 16 seed that can have a magical night from 3-point range.

But the inexplicable happens in football, too. Most of the 1-16, 2-15 and 3-14 games are blowouts, and no one complains about it. We wait for the one or two games a year that provide the unthinkable or a brush with the unthinkable, and it’s what we remember most from that tournament. This isn’t just about the access of Group of 5 teams to the hope and thrill that comes with a spot in the College Football Playoff; it’s about our access to them.

‘See, the committee did a bad job.’

Is that you again, Notre Dame fans? Actually, it was Notre Dame fans — and, to be fair, many, many others — warming up for Saturday, watching Friday as Alabama built a 17-point deficit at Oklahoma. Every Alabama incompletion and Oklahoma gain of 4 yards or more served as a referendum on the selection committee. Until the game completely flipped.

Which doesn’t matter. One of the all-time dumbest things in sports is using game results to re-litigate a selection committee’s choices. Alabama deserved to be in the field, largely because of its win at Georgia, and nothing from this game would have changed that.

But hey, considering how the Alabama and Miami games turned out, committee members had a right to smirk at the haters — for a fleeting moment, before looking in the mirror and remembering that it wasn’t the choices, it was the explanations, that were problematic.

‘At least the quarterfinals should be good.’

This isn’t really a complaint, and it isn’t wrong. But let’s also remember that, other than what should be an amazing scene with Indiana and Alabama playing at the Rose Bowl, everyone but the bowls is getting shortchanged with the current arrangement.

Miami should be visiting the Horseshoe, not playing Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Ole Miss should be taking a second crack at Georgia in Athens, not taking on the Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl. Texas Tech should be hosting the biggest athletic event in the history of its campus — it sure as heck shouldn’t be playing Oregon in south Florida. And for as stirring as that scene in Pasadena is, imagine a stadium full of new-money Hoosiers fans howling at Alabama royalty.

The pressure to make this right as soon as possible must continue. In the meantime, let’s wipe our tears with those sticky fingers and try to enjoy what’s left of the ice cream.