ATLANTA — Kirby Good felt it in pregame. He felt it later within the sport, too.
All he wanted to do was lookup within the stands at Mercedes-Benz Stadium at any level on Saturday and he’d see a number of thousand empty seats within the higher deck throughout Georgia’s 22-19 additional time win over Texas.
Name it an indication of the instances.
It simply means extra?
For championship weekend, “It used to imply extra” is much extra apt.
“I hate to say it, however in pregame, I didn’t suppose the sport had the identical juice and environment I’ve seen it have earlier than,” Good mentioned.
On Saturday morning, commissioners of the ACC and SEC campaigned on “Faculty GameDay” for extra groups of their respective leagues to be included within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. An extra staff within the area would enhance each leagues’ nationwide title odds. What else would assist these odds? Not making their two greatest groups play a thirteenth sport whereas each different staff within the convention sits at dwelling.
Good acknowledged the stadium got here alive after kickoff, partially as a result of it was a back-and-forth sport crammed with drama. However even he felt the stakes have been decrease than ever when he referred to as for a pretend punt with 11 minutes left in his personal territory with the sport tied.
“It’s rather a lot simpler to name it once you suppose you’re within the Playoff both means,” Good mentioned.
Championship weekend has come and gone, however the video games of their present kind want to remain away.
Convention title video games are vestiges of a bygone period in faculty soccer. They’re moneymakers and may keep that means (extra on that later), however of their present kind, it’s a nonsensical custom as faculty soccer steps into a brand new period.
Carson Beck was injured on the ultimate play of the primary half and is at the moment on the sideline pic.twitter.com/iB4hWkBREh
— FOX Faculty Soccer (@CFBONFOX) December 7, 2024
Why did Texas must play this sport?
The Longhorns gained the SEC outright within the common season — albeit with an unbalanced schedule that didn’t embody Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss or South Carolina.
However the SEC — and the Large Ten on Saturday night time — are asking their two greatest groups and the 2 groups most certainly to win the nationwide title to play a further sport that nobody else within the convention has to play.
In Texas’ case, if it wins the nationwide title, it should have performed 17 (!!) video games.
The Longhorns will find yourself taking part in two extra video games simply to succeed in the spot within the bracket they’d have began at had they been awarded the convention title for his or her common season efficiency: the Faculty Soccer Playoff quarterfinals.
Georgia will shoot up the bracket and earn one of many 4 valuable first-round byes, however doing so may need value them their beginning quarterback.
Carson Beck suffered what seemed to be an elbow harm on the final play of the primary half. Good referred to as it an “higher extremity” harm and Beck spent the second half together with his elbow on ice. He couldn’t throw the ball and struggled with grip energy earlier than athletic trainers determined he could be unavailable for the second half. He took a snap on the sport’s last play and handed the ball off, however his well being continues to be unsure till he will get an MRI within the subsequent few days.
My co-host on “Till Saturday,” The Athletic’s faculty soccer podcast, is Damien Harris, a two-time nationwide champion at Alabama. He likes to say the harm charge of soccer video games is 100%: Everybody who performs is leaving a bit banged up a method or one other.
Georgia discovered that the laborious means on Saturday. It was all the way down to its third-string holder after Beck and punter Brett Thorson have been injured.
However in virtually any season transferring ahead, the highest two groups within the Large Ten and SEC are going to be within the Playoff area no matter the results of the title sport. Asking them to crash into one another for 4 hours forward of a four-round, one-month race to a nationwide title is not sensible.
Within the 12-team Playoff period, convention titles have by no means meant much less. That’s an unsavory thought for some however that is the world the game has elected to inhabit.
Followers can sense it. Texas has one of many nation’s greatest fan bases. Saturday’s sport was native for Georgia, however round solely 20 p.c of the followers within the constructing have been carrying burnt orange. Ticket costs for the sport have been a fraction of what they have been every week in the past for Texas’ rivalry renewal towards Texas A&M in Faculty Station.
Why would a Texas fan spend cash on tickets and journey to Atlanta for a largely symbolic title as an alternative of saving for a visit to the quarterfinal, semifinal or title sport down the street?
It’s asking an excessive amount of of followers and it was palpable within the constructing on Saturday. The stakes weren’t what they’d been up to now when Georgia and Alabama clashed in what felt like winner-take-all matchups within the four-team period. No one’s chips have been all within the pot on Saturday and followers weren’t going to pay to see it.
So what’s the choice? The SEC earns nicely into eight figures from TV networks to play this sport, which is a part of the general package deal that ESPN and ABC bought the rights to broadcast. It’s not going away.
However it could possibly develop into one thing else. I’ll admit the specifics of my suggestion are … muddy.
However the scene and stakes would enhance if it have been one thing nearer to a play-in sport and marketed because the unofficial begin to the Playoff. There’s no purpose Texas and Georgia must put their our bodies on the road. The identical was true of SMU within the ACC after the Mustangs went undefeated in convention play.
What if Saturday featured South Carolina and Ole Miss or Alabama as a possibility to punch their ticket in a win-or-go-home sport?
I bumped into South Carolina coach Shane Beamer on the sector earlier than Saturday’s sport and he knew his staff’s possibilities of being included within the area have been slim to none. He’d have killed for a possibility to enhance these odds. This occasion could be higher if groups like his got that probability.
This would possibly make extra sense when the Playoff expands to 14 or 16 groups and if the Large Ten and SEC negotiate a particular variety of computerized bids. Forcing groups in fourth or fifth place to play on this sport as an alternative of the groups in first and second could be an inexpensive request.
It’s not excellent. However it makes extra sense than the present mannequin.
Nothing concerning the present state of school soccer is sensible.
Taking part in eight convention video games — because the SEC does, in comparison with the Large Ten’s 9 — in a league with 16 groups after which asking your greatest groups to play one other sport towards a Playoff-caliber opponent is asinine. Particularly when the sport is for little greater than seeding.
However that is the place the place faculty soccer has landed after chasing its tail — and ever-rising TV paychecks — for many years.
Figuring out convention titles primarily based on tiebreakers or unbalanced schedules isn’t excellent. However clinging to an outdated mannequin of crowning a convention champion is a good way to value your convention nationwide titles.
Beck’s elbow would possibly heal in time for him to play within the Playoff, nevertheless it additionally may be a season-ending harm. Would successful an SEC title be price sacrificing an actual probability at a nationwide title? There’s not a Georgia fan alive who would take that commerce.
Georgia’s title hopes hinge on the well being of Beck’s elbow, which might be superb if the Bulldogs had spent Saturday resting and enjoyable as an alternative of going head-to-head with one of the crucial bodily groups in America for 60 minutes.
Profitable a convention championship was as soon as a grand custom.
Now, it’s simply an pointless threat.
(Photograph of Kirby Good: Todd Kirkland / Getty Photos)
