This 17-Minute Video Will Make You Weep for the College Football They Stole From Us

We had the greatest sport in the world. We had something that could never be replicated.

And they took it all away.

I'm genuinely sad after watching that. College football was never supposed to be about a playoff — it was really never even about the national championship. That's what made it special. Sure, we would have the two best teams play to determine a national champion because that's a rational thing to do. But for the overwhelming majority of programs — who will still never win a title under this format, by the way — the entire season was the championship. October Saturdays with rivals coming to town for a big game were the entire point.

Think of all the moments in that video that would be rendered virtually meaningless under the upcoming CFP format: the Kick Six, 11-0 Ohio State vs. 11-0 Michigan, 2007 Kansas-Missouri, Stanford beating No. 1 USC as a 40-point underdog, 9-1 Michigan State's walk-off field goal vs. 10-0 Ohio State and dozens more. Now they'd all be fun highlights online for a day with no stakes whatsoever. If Michigan and OSU meet again as undefeated teams going forward, they may rest their starters for the long Playoff ahead. Ohio State may never even play a meaningful regular season game ever again.

This is the NFL now. The things that made college football special have been stripped away to make room for something nobody wanted except league offices and television executives. But at least they can't take away our memories.