The narrative that "every game matters" was dispelled (again) after the College Football Playoff field was released on Sunday.
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Related: To much controversy, the official College Football Playoff has been released
To some, the beauty of college football is that unlike in the NFL, every game in the regular season actually matters. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney reiterated this point on Sunday night.
Dabo Swinney repeats the fiction that CFB is great with 4-team playoff because "every game matters" hours after B1G championship that didn't
— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) December 5, 2016
But here's the thing: it's not true. Penn State beat Ohio State head-to-head and defeated Wisconsin to win the Big 10 championship. Yet, Ohio State was selected over the Nittany Lions. Regardless of the outcome of the Big 10 title game — which featured a pair of two-loss teams — Ohio State was going to make the playoffs. So the notion "every game matters" isn't necessarily true in the context of how Swinney meant it.
Part of the logic people use against an eight-team playoff is that it would devalue the regular season. You can pick holes in any postseason format, whether it's the BCS, a four-team playoff, a six-team playoff or an eight-team playoff. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but a system that doesn't value conference title games or head-to-head obviously has some flaws. The playoff format will inevitably expand to eight teams eventually, and there will be flaws in that system as well (complaints of a watered down regular season will be most prevalent).
It's a bit shortsighted of Swinney to suggest the playoff field is working simply because his team made the field. If Swinney coached Penn State, he would assuredly feel otherwise.
