Less than an hour away from the start of today’s first college football national semi-final game, between Notre Dame and Clemson, which should last for approximately four hours. This will be followed by the day’s marquee matchup, featuring Oklahoma seeking to upset Lou Saban’s dynastic program from Tuscaloosa, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and should provide another four hours of tv programming.

Before the first semi-final, we have learned that three players from Clemson have been suspended from today’s game and may face a possible one-year suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Each player tested positive for having traces of ostarine, in their B samples, and ostarine is illegal in the United States. Clemson’s players are claiming they did not take ostarine. Ostarine can sometimes be found in supplements without being named as an ingredient on the label. Clemson officials are investigating whether the players could have been contaminated by anything relating to their program, such as treatments offered in their saltwater float pool.

Saltwater float pool?

In the elite neighborhood of college football, the four programs taking the field today represent the upper 1%. These teams are not nouveau riche arrivistes, such as last year’s squad from Central Florida, who were prevented from rubbing shoulders with the big boys of college football in the 2017 mini-tournament.  These are blue blood programs. Pedigree is a must to enter this mix, and each team has written a chapter or more of college football history.

But these elite programs are rare. Most schools do not have a saltwater float pool. Most bowl games are cheap programming for ESPN and have no real meaning or merit, which was demonstrated by the decision to cancel the First Responder Bowl between Boston College and Boise St on December 26th.

The current model of selecting four teams to play in a mini-tournament, for college football’s national championship, has been in place for five years. In those five years, ten different schools have been invited to vie for the title of national champion. Below is a list populated by schools that define the college football ideal of raccoon coats, comely cheerleaders and rabid fan bases.

 

Mini-Tournament Invitees

1. Alabama (5 Invitations )
2. Clemson (4 Invitations)
3. Oklahoma (3 Invitations)
4. Ohio State (2 Invitations)
5. Oregon *
6. Florida State *
7. Michigan State *
8. Washington *
9. Georgia *
10. Notre Dame *

• A single invitation to these schools. 

 

This mini-tournament is a closed-door society that occasionally has to open its doors to a just-got-lucky squad, but make no mistake, this entire exercise is devised to favor the heavyweights and effectively prevents the vast majority of programs from rising to this elite level. This is a self-perpetuating exercise in class consolidation.