The first 12-team College Football Playoff, which began this weekend, featured an unwelcome holdover from its four-team predecessor.

Bad games.

All four games in the first round were decided by double digits. In the 120 minutes of the second half, the score was within a touchdown for a total of 55 seconds. ESPN’s win probability never fell below 87 percent in the fourth quarter for Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State or Texas.

Performances — such as ACC runner-up SMU, the last free team, losing 38-10 to Penn State — are being scrutinized by fans and administrators trying to prove their case and shape future models . But they also require a historical context.

Although last year’s semifinals were close, the average first-round margin of victory in the four-team playoff era (2014–23) was 17.9 points. If you include national title games, the margin was 18.6.

The average spread in this year’s first round was 19.3 points. Worse, but not drastically different. The difference in yardage this weekend (121.8 per game) was actually smaller than the first round of the last model (125).

Two touchdowns in garbage time made the first on-campus game of the 12-team era — Indiana’s 27-17 loss to Notre Dame on Friday night — seem closer than it was. But it was still closer than the first CFP game a decade ago: Oregon’s 59-20 win over undefeated Florida State in the Rose Bowl. The lasting image of that semifinal was Seminoles star quarterback Jameis Winston slipping and fumbling backwards for a 58-yard scoop-and-score Ducks touchdown. Not exactly the pinnacle of elite competition.

Clemson made its trip to Texas interesting by fighting back in the fourth quarter and making it a one-possession game. But the Tigers were dominated on the ground (outrebounded 292-76), and a Texas win never seemed in jeopardy. Once Clemson cut the lead to seven, the Longhorns’ Jaydon Blue broke off a 77-yard touchdown run.

It was Clemson’s 11th CFP game. The Tigers’ first 10 games were decided by an average of 17.7 points. Clemson lost by 14 on Saturday.

Ohio State’s 42-17 win over Tennessee was perhaps the most shocking, as the Buckeyes outscored the Volunteers 205-16 in the first quarter. But Ohio State’s 21-10 halftime lead wasn’t as big as its lead over Clemson (35-14) during two quarters of a Sugar Bowl triumph in January 2021. Although the Buckeyes won by 25% on Saturday, it was only the 10th-biggest CFP blowout (Ohio State even suffered losses of 31 and 28 in the four-team era).

As much as Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin – who made sarcastic comments on social media during the “really exciting” loss at Indiana and the “riveting” Penn State game – and others want to complain or giggle about the system, this Problem is not new. It is not a product of the electrical home advantages shown; Teams were eliminated in neutral NFL stadiums and reduced crowds during the 2020 COVID-19 season.

Nor is it the product of less secure teams with lower reputations being on the field. Florida State, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan State suffered bigger first-round losses in the old era than SMU and Indiana did this weekend.

And it doesn’t just happen in college football. The average margin of victory in the Wild Card round of last season’s NFL playoffs was 17.3 points. Has anyone grumbled about whether the Philadelphia Eagles deserved to take the field after their 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

The one-sided results are not suitable for simple overall summaries. A poor 11-win SMU performance didn’t help the ACC in the case of SEC fans who thought Alabama, Ole Miss or South Carolina didn’t belong. But the dud from a team that finished better than everyone else in the SEC standings (Tennessee) killed that discussion point.

If there are fans clamoring for the older system, it wasn’t much better back then. From 2014 to 2023, CFP/New Year’s Six bowls saw nearly as many losses by more than 20 points (22) as games decided by single digits (26). The average national title game in the BCS era was decided by two touchdowns.

Of course, just because other postseasons have been lackluster doesn’t mean that will continue to be the case in the future. The conference commissioners and school administrators who organize the system will and should consider future changes when this playoff concludes next month in Atlanta. An expansion (probably to 14 teams) is a possibility. Giving the top four teams a bye in the first round, regardless of whether they won their conference, is worth discussing. This also applies to the re-seeding of teams after the first round.

But after the first small selection of uninteresting games, there is no need to overreact. Unfortunately, this first round wasn’t much different than usual.

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(Photo by Kaytron Allen: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)