If 11-1 BYU loses in the Big 12 Conference Championship to No. 5 Texas Tech for a second time this season and is excluded from the College Football Playoffs, it will be one of the biggest injustices in the history of college sports.
If you care enough about this topic to read this article you are already well versed in how the Cougars resume is superior to a number of teams in front of them. No matter what objective metrics you use -- strength of record, strength of schedule, best win, worst loss, total losses, wins against bowl-eligible teams, making a conference championship game, etc. -- Kalani Sitake's team is a Top 10 squad.
Despite BYU's deserving resume, the College Football Playoff selection committee and their broadcast partner in crime, ESPN, are completely ignoring the Cougars. They literally exclude BYU when discussing teams "on the bubble", when the Cougars should already be comfortable situated in the CFP.
Do you see what ESPN is doing? pic.twitter.com/zXnreHVlR2
— BoxScore (@BoxScore_FB) November 29, 2025
The unprecedented, blatant, biased exclusion of BYU from the College Football Playoffs reveals what this corrupt, greedy system really is: A snobbish cartel that only cares about preserving the SEC and Big Ten's "Power Two" status -- plus Notre Dame's reputation -- and maximizing TV viewership for more money for ESPN.
The CFP isn't about rewarding the12 most deserving teams with access to a tournament of the programs with the most impressive seasons. It's about keeping the status quo. It's conferences, brands, and teams your granddaddy's uncle rooted for.
With that in mind, it's time to change the name from the CFP to the GOBLIN Cup, which stands for the Good Ol' Boys Limited Invitational Nationals. Here's why:
The Good Ol' Boys
The College Football Playoff and ESPN don't enter each season with the slate wiped clean then objectively, impartially look for the 12 teams with the most impressive resumes for that particular year. Instead, a small cadre of blueblood teams begin each season deemed "innocent until proven guilty" while the rest of the college football world starts the season on the outside looking in, BYU included.
Making the playoffs is their birthright. It has been given to them by default. It's theirs to have until they completely fumble it away.
In summary, it's a Good Ol' Boys club.
There are about 16 teams that begin the season already with a predestined spot in the College Football Playoffs and will remain there unless they lose sometimes upward of four games. Here's the Good Ol' Boys network:
SEC: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas
Big Ten: Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, USC
ACC: Clemson, Miami
Independent: Notre Dame
If you're one of those 15 teams, congratulations! You're in the club!
If you're one of those SEC teams, all you need to do is go 5-3 in conference play, beat up on four bad nonconference teams, and you'll have the CFP selection committee and ESPN moving heaven and earth to get you into the so-called playoffs.
If you're one of those Big Ten squads or Notre Dame, you can play a pretty weak strength of schedule, lose a handfull of games, and still have the CFP selection committee and ESPN magnifying your wins and justifying your "quality losses."
But if you're not one of the Good Ol' Boys, good luck getting into the "playoffs" they gatekeep.
Like BYU, you can have a near perfect season and still get completely overlooked. The corrupt, snobbish, exclusionary bluebloods will move heaven and earth to keep you on the outside. Meanwhile, no matter what you do on the field, ESPN will control the narrative that you're less deserving and it would be a national tragedy if a less-deserving Good Ol' Boy lost his postseason birthright.
The CFP isn't a playoff of the 12 most deserving teams.
It's about protecting and preserving the Good Ol' Boys network.
They put the "GOB" in the "GOBLIN Cup"
Limited Invitation National
As presently constituted, the CFPs aren't a "playoff" for the 12 most deserving teams. It's a limited invitational national tournament that's assembled using subjective, inconsistent requirements for admission.
It's limited. Access to the CFPs is limited by the select few, primarily for the select few. The goal of the selection committee and ESPN's naked grab for cash isn't to expand inclusion, it's to limit it. They want the blue blood brands and actively strive to limit access to the less-thans, as they see it.
It's an invitational. Rather than earning spots in the CFPs based on objective data or by playing in conferences with sizes and geographies that produce the most deserving teams, participants in the CFP are invited by the SEC, Big Ten, and ESPN to come to the shin dig they're throwing. You're either one of the cool kids, or you aren't, regardless of your resume.
The GOBLIN Cup
If BYU gets excluded from the College Football Playoffs for only having lost to the No. 5 team in the country, the name needs to be changed from the CFP to the GOBLIN Cup.
GOBLIN standing for the "Good Ol' Boys Limited Invitation National" cup series.
And a goblin is good imagery for what the CFP selection committee and ESPN have devolved into unless, of course, you're one of the 16 bluebloods who are in the tournament from Week 1 until you clearly fall out.
I recently asked Grok why people dislike goblins and here's what it said: "Goblins are ugly and grotesque, greedy and thieving, cruel and sadistic, and stupid and chaotic."
That pretty much sums up how those of us on the outside looking in on the Good Ol' Boys network feel about their limited invitational tournament they put together every year.
I hope BYU beats Texas Tech to guarantee the Cougars place in the College Football Playoffs, but the odds are against them.
I hope if BYU loses to Texas Tech that the CFP selection committee still does the right thing and includes BYU in the playoffs, but the odds of that happening are even worse than beating Texas Tech.
Related: Did BYU football lose their shot at the College Football Playoff with a loss to Texas Tech
Should BYU lose in the Big 12 conference championship game and get shafted by the College Football Playoff selection committee, I might not watch any of the CFP games this year because it's galling to support a corrupt, rigged system.
And to whichever team emerges victorious, I'll be sure to congratulate them for winning the GOBLIN Cup.