Tom Fornelli's CFP Vibe Check: No matter how big playoff field gets, no game will ever be meaningless — SkimNews
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- The College Football Playoff will expand to 24 teams, a move Fornelli concedes was 'not well-met' but argues the current portal-and-NIL era of parity already demands it
- Week 7 chaos saw eight top-20 teams fall (five of them top-10) and Miami escape Florida State in double-overtime — a win that, had it gone the other way, would have produced the first week in AP Top 25 history (since 1936) where the top three all lost
- BYU's 28-24 upset of Notre Dame vaulted the Cougars' CFP odds from +200 (33.3%) to -140 (58.3%), the best in the Big 12, whose combined implied odds now sit at 1.94 playoff teams
- Notre Dame saw its playoff odds collapse from -4000 (97.6%) to -1000 (90.9%), still third-best, with Miami — now at -2500, the country's top mark — looming as the toughest remaining test
- Ohio State beat Indiana but lost starting QB Julian Sayin to an arm injury that Ryan Day said will keep him out 'several weeks'; backup Luke Fahey 'did not inspire much confidence' in relief
- The SEC had five top-20 teams lose on the same Saturday, dropping the league's projected CFP haul from five teams to 'four at best,' with LSU and Tennessee tied at +154 (39.4%) — behind UCLA and Boise State
- Auburn coach Alex Golesh fought back tears with his son after the Tigers' first win at Georgia since 2005, the kind of scene Fornelli cites to rebut the 'games are meaningless' criticism of expansion
Why it matters: The CFP picture reshuffled hard in a single Saturday, and marquee non-conference wins like BYU over Notre Dame now carry championship weight that didn't exist before — the SEC's projected five-team CFP presence dropping to four is the clearest sign that parity is forcing the committee's hand faster than the 24-team expansion itself will.
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