"It's conference championship weekend ... a thing that matters! Right? There are rematches and gritty duels and a 1 vs. 2 matchup between undefeated juggernauts and no one can be bothered to give much of a shit about any of it. Is it the expanded playoff's fault? Have they really ruined conference championships the way they ruined the bowls and threaten to ruin the regular season as a whole? It's hard to disagree with that idea."
"There are eight clear ways to avoid the conference championship ennui to which Israel refers, and that is the FCS playoffs, which have none of the stupid angst and potential for mindless bickering that the big-kids playoffs will. Oddly, though, only one of those eight games, Rhode Island at UC Davis, will be somewhere other than the witness protection network, a.k.a. ESPN+ (it's on ESPN2, which is Broadway for these guys),"
Conference championship weekend lacks perceived significance because the expanded playoff and the committee's ranking decisions overshadow on-field outcomes. Many games feel like staging for televised ranking reveals rather than decisive steps toward a title. The playoff debate dominates fan attention and reduces the stakes of conference championships, miring the season in speculation about committee preferences. The FCS playoffs offer a contrasting model with clearer stakes and less contentious selection drama. Most FCS games are relegated to streaming platforms, with only a few on mainstream cable, limiting broader viewing despite potentially more authentic competitiveness.
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