Football

it really just takes a couple of key players deciding to pass, to change the level of a team's play. So ratings are fluid, transient guesses. Maybe no better than bowl games with major conference tie-ins that usually made for off-season debate material

That's going to be the next conundrum any
format faces. Some committee will have to decide whether a "consensus number one" team should still be seeded 1 when key offensive and defensive players decide potential seven-figure contracts outweigh playing one more game for a school. And if that practice becomes common among players with NFL potential, no playoff can be useful. It could make bowl games essentially the first practice game for next year