There Are No Style Points Now: Winning Is All That Matters in the CFP

In the postseason, style points take a backseat to results. Winning the College Football Playoff is the only thing that matters now

Nov 30, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard (13) is pressured by Southern California Trojans safety Kamari Ramsey (7) in the second half at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The beauty pageant is over

In the college football regular season, teams are ranked based on the perception of how good they are relative to the teams played and the perception of how good they are. This is a subjective process that is anything but an exact science.

All season long teams jockey for position. Teams look for "pretty points" and try to win by as much as possible to possibly improve their standing in the eyes of the voters in the AP poll, coach's poll, and CFP committee.

All of this jockeying for position, politicking, and debating has been a part of the college game forever. But we are now at a point where none of this matters anymore.

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All that matters now is to survive and advance

Once the debating and politicking runs its course, the CFP bracket is set. From this point on, style points don't exist. Impressing people with your win margin or style of play is irrelevant. All that matters now is winning and advancing. This is freeing in way.

There is no committee to impress at this stage. No voters to worry about. This is now an NFL bracket-style elimination tournament. The only validation that should and does matter from here on out comes from winning and advancing. Period.

Are there certain teams in this field that carry more cache than others? Sure. Are there some rosters that appear to be much more stacked with top-end talent than some others? Indeed. But none of that matters now. The reality is that once the CFP bracket was set, every team's record went to 0-0 with no compiled statistics. All that matters now is what comes next, not what has already been.

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