Ten Takeaways: Are you happy with the 12-team playoff you asked for?

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1. Notre Dame learns they aren't larger than the program

I understand why Notre Dame and their fans are mad. For over a month, the committee spent each rankings reveal showing they believed the Irish were a playoff team over Miami, while Notre Dame did their part by wrecking each opponent in front of them. I would've been fine with Notre Dame making the playoff, despite the fact that I always thought Miami should've been ahead of them because of their head-to-head win. That's exactly why I have no problem with the committee finally recognizing that result and giving it the ultimate power in the debate between the two. Waiting until the last moment to switch up their reasoning made it inevitable that this would become a shitstorm of controversy, though. I don't blame Notre Dame for being upset about it, but the cries of persecution and conspiracy coming out of South Bend since have been embarrassing to watch.

Notre Dame is historically the most iconic brand in college football. So much so that they still have the power to actively choose not being fully affiliated to a conference, yet still reap the rewards of a major program. They don't get the benefit of a potential conference title win (Clemson last year), but they also have never faced the downside of a conference title loss. They've used that to their advantage in every postseason system since the birth of conference title games in the early 1990s. They have so much power, in fact, that if this exact situation played out next year, they'll be in the playoff because of a piece of paper they signed:

Notre Dame's been college football's golden child for 70+ years. They've been afforded every opportunity they've ever wanted. They could've avoided all this by simply beating either the Hurricanes or Texas A&M on the field. Instead, losing those games left it up to a committee in a boardroom - which is what makes this situation so comical. A process that has always said, "yes" to Notre Dame finally said, "No." Just like most golden children who always get what they want, Notre Dame's response was to take their ball and go home. Better luck next year, I guess.

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2. Let's not take the committee off the hook, though

The playoff committee was wrong to not value Miami's win over Notre Dame in the first place. I'll give them credit for righting that wrong, but it was a situation they created on their own that could've been avoided weeks ago. Ultimately, the Miami/Notre Dame conundrum is why I've only watched a handful of the CFP rankings shows in its 11-year history. The committee's always been liable to say one thing and change their mind later, or talk out of both sides of their mouth. BYU gets punished for losing their conference title game by multiple scores, but Alabama doesn't? How does that make sense?

I've told you more than enough times how much I hate the 12-team playoff, and I don't need to re-hash it here again. Even I can recognize the most glaring issue with the current system isn't the number of teams, though. Here's what it is, to me:

• The people in charge of picking the teams.
• What those people's affiliations are to said teams and conferences.
• The inconsistent and duplicitous criteria used to select the teams.
• The entity responsible for broadcasting the playoff (ESPN) and their extremely messy affiliations to the different conferences.
• A system that can be changed on the fly to fit the agenda of the most powerful conferences/whoever's whining the most about the final rankings.

Like almost everything else in college football, the biggest issue with the playoff isn't the playoff itself - it's the idiots in charge of it.

3. Early playoff thoughts