“And lastly, to the College Football Playoff selection committee, I implore you: consider what the new 12-team format has done to the game. Has it made crowning a champion any simpler or easier?

12 is a fairly awkward number of contenders to assemble to decide a national champion. Six made more sense, eight at the most. You could go to sixteen, but then at that point, it would be incumbent upon anyone who cares about the game to advocate for the elimination of conference championships.

Whatever tweaks you make, we should never have to choose between a conference championship game participant (SMU) and a Bama team that just got smoked by three touchdowns by a (bad) Oklahoma squad. (Thank you for doing what was right this year and keeping Bama out.)”

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“We’re writing this letter through tear-filled eyes right now. This the most difficult thing we have ever had to do…

Yesterday, the unthinkable happened. We’re still processing things on our end, but unfortunately, Clemson beating SMU means we’re going to have to take a break from this relationship.

It’s not you. We know everyone says that, but seriously, it’s not. We still ranked you 11, but because of the automatic bids granted to the top 5 ranked conference champions—a rule we created specifically for you—you’re going to be the first team out.

We know it probably comes as a shock, it did for us, too. You’re still getting a nice bowl game. (And if you’re curious about what ReliaQuest does, we’re not 100% sure, but it has something to do with artificial intelligence and security. Hopefully, you’ll have time to read up on them before you get to Tampa.)

Anyway, we don’t really know what else to say at this point, except we still love you, we’re just not in love with you any more. Not this year, at least.

Anyway, we’ll think of you always.

Until next season, <3,

The Committee”

“My Dearest Crimson Tide,” the letter opened, “You are everything we could ever want in a CFP contender.”

“You’ve been going through some tough times recently, we get that: there was the surprise at Vanderbilt, whatever happened at Tennessee, and that disaster in Norman, Oklahoma most recently. Things haven’t exactly gone to plan this season.”

“Still, we just can’t quit you,” the letter went on, “and the thought of going through an entire playoff cycle—an expanded one, no less!—without hearing that Ryan Williams is only 17 years old at least fifty times (will he be 18 by then?) is just too much to bear.”

“At the end of the day, we’ve been through a lot together. It was never about Nick, it was alway YOU!!! From Tua relieving Hurts to Devonta Smith’s dismantling of Ohio State…even those tough losses to Clemson. It just wouldn’t be a CFP without you. (We would have put you higher, probably closer to where SMU is at, but we didn’t want anyone to get suspicious, hopefully you’re okay with that.)”

“You could have a hundred losses,” the group note—apparently compiled in Canva—concluded, “and you would still win our hearts.”