LEXINGTON, Ky. — As sports, college football and men’s college basketball have long been polar opposites.

Since the NCAA expanded March Madness to at least 64 teams in 1985, college hoops has had the best postseason championship format of all major American sports.

The tradeoff, however, is that, due to the high number of at-large teams that make the NCAA tourney from the power conferences (33 in 2025), the meaning of the regular season is diluted.

College football has long existed with a conflicting reality. Because it has not had a large tournament to determine its champion, it has historically had the most meaningful regular season in U.S. sports.

Unlike hoops, however, college football has struggled to land on a satisfying postseason structure to determine its champion.

This contr

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