Healthy for the sport to see Notre Dame excluded for a change, they've travelled on the independent no conference affiliation schtick for a long time, but a schedule chocked full of losing programs and losing at home to Miami and Texas A & M won't stack up against the other proven competitors and highly competitive programs playing in very difficult conferences.
Looking at the teams within the playoff this year, Oklahoma goes in much like Tennessee did last year, avoiding the playoff game with the two loss maximum, but not available for any SEC team with three losses. Ole Miss rolls in as a one loss team, avoiding the conference championship game as well.
Miami slides in on a record, but an inability to compete in the ACC conference championship given their tie breaker framework, comparable to how Oklahoma and Ole Miss got in with solid records and avoidance of the conference championship game.
But looking at the playoff framework you see how far Tennessee football and Heupel's program has fallen from a playoff appearance in 2024 and the extreme conference schedule hardship that will present itself for a shot at returning to the playoff in 2026.
And Vanderbilt's Cinderella Season can wind out down there in Orlando or perhaps poke around over there in Tampa, but could easily slip over to the Gator Bowl, all depending on where they need to stick Texas into the conversation.
Given the costs incurred in appearing in certain bowl games, would expect to see certain programs simply pass, as given the fan apathy in certain programs and the undesirability of various locations, those bowl events will be money losing propositions for the schools, but conferences may limit their share of the conference revenue for sitting out a bowl game.
