You see this 24-team playoff talk with the ACC joining the Big Ten and Big 12 and I just think back to the 1994 season when we opened against North Carolina at the old Carter Stadium on a Thursday night. We didnt need no 24-team bracket back then. You won your conference or you went to the Cotton Bowl and you were grateful for it. Now everybody gets a participation trophy and half the teams in the playoff will have three losses.
What I remember is the 2009 Fiesta Bowl season when we went 12-0 and still got left out of the national championship game because the system was rigged for the big boys. But you know what? We didnt complain. We went out and beat Boise State in that Fiesta Bowl and proved we belonged. That team had 12 seniors who all came up through the program together. Not a single transfer among them. Just kids who committed to Fort Worth and to each other.
Now we got the Big 12 and Big Ten and ACC all holding hands on this 24-team proposal and the SEC is the bad guy for pushing back. I remember when the SEC was the conference we wanted to beat. Not join. Not negotiate with. Beat. The 2014 Peach Bowl against Ole Miss. The 2016 Alamo Bowl against Oregon. We played anybody anywhere and we didnt need 24 teams in a playoff to validate our season.
This whole thing is just about money and about making sure the big brands never miss the party. Back in the Southwest Conference days you earned your way to the Cotton Bowl. You didnt get a mulligan because you finished fourth in your division. Six consecutive unique Big 12 champions they keep talking about and that means something. But a 24-team playoff just guarantees that nobody has to be great. Just good enough.