There was no right choice. Someone who deserved it would be rejected.

Either the College Football Playoff committee would leave out undefeated ACC champion Florida State, which has not been the same since losing star quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending leg injury in the last week of November.

Or Alabama, which had come from behind to beat two-time national champion and No. 1 Georgia, would probably not have been included. Some even argued that if the goal was to beat the top four teams, Georgia should still be included.

Those problems are a thing of the past, as the playoffs have expanded to 12 teams this year, creating a true postseason tournament for the first time in the sport’s history.

For once, Cinderella will have a seat at the table – the top-ranked conference champion from the Group of Five will receive an automatic bid, along with the winners of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12. The other seven spots will be filled by at-large teams. And what increases the anticipation even more: The first-round games will be played on campus.

Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh succinctly summed up the coming changes last December.

“It just gets better,” he said.

The same can be said about the situation of sport in the course of a comprehensive realignment.

There are now two super leagues, the Big Ten and the SEC, after USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon joined the former and Texas and Oklahoma joined the latter.

The Pac-12 is now the Pac-2 (Oregon State and Washington State) as Cal, SMU and Stanford moved to the ACC and Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah were admitted as members of the Big 12.

Between the 12-team playoffs and the revamped conferences that offer more exciting matchups, college football has a completely different, more immersive feel. Better games and additional teams involved in deciding the champion will almost certainly attract more attention.

Does this sound familiar? It should.

“Many critics say college football is just like the NFL. What’s wrong with that?” Paul Finebaum, college football analyst for ESPN and longtime SEC historian, told The Washington Post by phone. “The NFL is the most successful sport in this country and there are reasons for that because the playoff system includes so many different teams.”

“Instead of five or six schools competing to make the playoffs in college football, there’s an endless number, and they’re competing for a number of different things. It’s no longer just about getting into the playoffs like it has been in the past. Do you get a first-round bye? Do you get to play at home? It’s the oxygen that keeps the NFL season going in the final weeks, and the same will be true here.”

Of course, the new system isn’t perfect. Historic rivalries have been lost. There will be more travel. Some aspects of the regular season may suffer. The all-or-nothing showdowns between elite teams are almost certainly over.

For example, two of the last three meetings between Michigan and Ohio State were do-or-die—the winner took the Big Ten title and a playoff spot, the loser an irrelevant bowl. The SEC championship game between Georgia and Alabama last December had exactly the same pressure.

That’s the price you have to pay for an improved product.

In a decade of four-team playoffs, only 15 different schools were selected. Of the 40 available bids, 29 of them were Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Georgia and Michigan.

One school outside the Power Conference, Cincinnati of the American Athletic Conference in 2021, was included in the playoffs. As an independent university, Notre Dame is a separate entity.

The new format gives hope to second-tier power conference programs that never had realistic playoff dreams before.

This leaves room for error. Winning your conference is your top priority because it guarantees you a spot in the playoffs.

“The excitement I see and feel from fans for the sport is because there are more fan bases that are legitimately excited about a potential playoff berth. That definitely wasn’t the case before,” said Joel Klatt, a college football analyst for Fox. “I have a good feeling that we’re going to have about 30 teams come November that still believe they have a legitimate path to the playoffs, and we’ve never seen that in college football.”

“So not only do you have Oregon versus Ohio State and Texas versus Georgia matchups, but you also have the opportunity for teams like Iowa, Kansas and Missouri and many others to play really important and impactful big games towards the end of the year.”

In college basketball, there is March Madness. In college football, there is now December Drama. It is the beginning of a new era.

“I think it’s probably the most dramatic and exciting college football season ever, quite honestly. We’ve never been to a point like this,” Finebaum said. “It’s a breathtaking time for the sport.”