Conference championship games still matter. There was some handwringing when the still relatively new 12-team College Football Playoff format was announced that both the regular season and title games would be devalued.

Neither has come to fruition thus far. Even after the College Football Playoff moved to a straight-seeding format for the 2025 season, it still preserved automatic bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions -- adding even more motivation to win a title.

There's another layer when you consider that the four highest-ranked teams get a first-round bye. To even be considered for a top-four seed in this era, it feels like a program has to at least make its conference's championship game.

So, suffice to say, there's a lot on the line this championship weekend. H

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