NRG Stadium was the site of the last college football championship game of its kind (Wikipedia).

Well, I’m glad that’s over.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy watching the College Football Playoff championship game on Monday, but I grumble to myself about how long it took to get to this point, and how glad I am that next year’s playoff will be a true playoff tournament instead of a club of the two or four teams that had the most supporters in states in the arcane process of selection.

A two-game playoff was entertaining but ridiculous; how can you possibly pick the best two teams in college among the 133 in the division? How can there be any certainty that Number Three isn’t better than either of the two above?
Expanding the “playoff” to four was an improvement. Michigan clearly belonged in the top two, but who’s to say that Oregon or Florida State couldn’t have knocked off Texas or Alabama?

Next year’s 16-team format comes as a cool breeze. It’s unlikely – although not impossible – that a serious contender would be outside a field that big.
Of course, each year the team ranked 17th will complain about being overlooked, cheated and victimized, but that’s mostly about job protection for coaches.

Just like making the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament is the basic requirement for a coach to hold onto his job for very long, a similar yardstick will emerge on the gridiron. Make the 16 or get 86’d.

On a more positive note, I really appreciated the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Fantasia Barrino. Not only was it beautifully rendered, but she resisted the temptation to turn it into simply a performance, reaching for that showy high-note.
“The Star Spangled Banner” is not a pop song; it should be treated seriously and with respect for what it represents.