The 2024 college football season — the first that will crown a national champion via the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff — has already been one of the wildest seasons in recent memory and there's still a month of the regular season left to go. 

Thanks to the 12-team playoff, the final month of the season should be as exciting as ever, with multiple programs jockeying for a spot in the end-of-season of tournament. 

For the last couple of weeks, we've talked about how the Tennessee Vols' win against the Alabama Crimson Tide earlier this month should put UT in a great spot to make the playoff. 

Tennessee will definitely be in the playoff if they win out to finish the regular season at 11-1. After the Vols' win against Alabama, the assumption has been that Tennessee can probably afford a second loss (that most likely second loss would be to Georgia) and still sneak into the playoff. But based on the latest playoff projections, I'm not sure that'll be the case. In fact, I think there's a very real scenario where Tennessee could finish the season at 10-2 and be left out of the playoff. 

Several of the latest playoff projections from the top national media outlets currently have the Vols out of the playoff. The Athletic's Stewart Mandel explained why he left Tennessee out of his latest projection. 

From The Athletic: In going through SEC schedules, I realized Tennessee by season’s end may face only four teams that finish .500 or better (Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and Vanderbilt), of which I have the Vols winning two (Alabama and Vandy). I had to drop them out.

On3's Andy Staples also currently has the Vols out of the playoff. The same goes for CBS Sports' Jerry Palm, who is currently predicting that Tennessee will play SMU in the Gator Bowl. 

We can argue with those projections all day. That's not the point. The point is that the national media, which often accurately reflects the opinion of the playoff committee, has Tennessee as a bubble team right now. And that means that the Vols, unlike what we previously thought, probably need to beat Georgia to get into the playoff (depending on what happens with other teams ranked in the top 10 right now). 

There's more parity than ever in college football, which makes it tough to objectively rank teams. That leads to assumptions getting made about certain programs because of the name on the uniforms. And that's the biggest flaw with the new 12-team playoff. 

Preseason rankings and brand recognition lead to flawed 12-team College Football Playoff 

A lot of teams that could make some noise in the playoff are going to be left out come December. And it won't be the big-named programs that often get the benefit of the doubt that are left out. 

The résumés of some of the programs that are currently viewed as in the playoff aren't all that impressive, yet no one is questioning those programs because of brand recognition and where they were ranked coming into the season. 

Let's take Ohio State for example. The Buckeyes are currently No. 4 in the AP Top 25 poll. Mandel has Ohio State as the No. 5 seed (an at-large bid) in his playoff rankings. The Buckeyes are 6-1 with a loss to Oregon. Ohio State's best wins are against Michigan State, Iowa, and Nebraska. None of those teams are ranked. 

What have the Buckeyes done to deserve being ranked in the top 5? The answer is absolutely nothing. I mean, Pittsburgh has a similar résumé (except the Panthers are undefeated) and they're ranked No. 18 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. But if you suggest that Pittsburgh is as good as Ohio State, you'll get laughed at. But why? What's happened in previous seasons shouldn't matter when ranking teams this season. The fact is that Pittsburgh isn't getting a fair shake because their name isn't Ohio State. 

Texas is similarly given the benefit of the doubt. The Longhorns are 6-1 with a loss to Georgia and they're ranked No. 6. They're also included in all three playoff projections that I've referenced (as an at large seed). The best win from Texas this season? A 19 point win against a three-loss Michigan team. Texas also has wins against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. 

So how is Texas getting the benefit of the doubt over Tennessee? The Vols' best win (against Alabama) is better than the Longhorns' best win. Is it because Tennessee lost to Arkansas? Is that the reason that Texas is a viewed as a lock to make the playoff? Because the Longhorns' loss to Georgia is that much better than the Vols' loss to Arkansas? That's the reason for the huge gap between the two programs in the eyes of the national media? 

The Bulldogs are another team that gets the benefit of the doubt. Georgia barely beat a bad Kentucky team and struggled with a really bad Mississippi State team. And then they lost to a team (Alabama) that lost to a team (Vanderbilt) that lost to Georgia Sate. I know we can't use the transitive property to determine playoff spots, but it perfectly captures the parity that's currently in the sport. And because of the way the big brands are viewed, not every program is getting a fair shot. Assumptions about programs — such as the belief that Ohio State must be a top 5 one-loss team because the name on their jersey is Ohio State instead of Pittsburgh, Indiana, or Kansas State — provide an unfair advantage for the big brand programs. 

Some teams that deserve to compete for a national championship this season are going to be left out of the playoff because of assumptions that shouldn't be made in this current era of college football. The transfer portal and NIL have made college football a lot like college basketball. We're at the point where an unranked team beating a top five team isn't shocking anymore. If Oregon loses to unranked Michigan this upcoming weekend, will anyone be surprised? If Georgia loses to unranked Ole Miss in a couple of weeks, will anyone be shocked? 

The 12-team playoff is a great addition to college football. But because of the parity in the sport — and the inability of the national media to be objective when it comes to brands — I'm not sure 12 teams is good enough. I think we're at a point where the sport deserves to have a 24 team or a 32 team playoff. If the sport is behaving like college basketball, why not give it a postseason format that's similar to college basketball?

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