Even if demand not high, conference title games are key to playoff era

So the get-in price for the Big Ten championship game is less than $20 on StubHub. 

This, of course, has sent the college football world into a tizzy of overblown prisoner of the moment statements. 

Expansion has ruined college football. 

No one in the Big Ten knows or cares about Oregon. 

The 12-team College Football Playoff has rendered conference championship games useless. 

All ridiculous, reactionary mental gymnastics.

Want to know why you can stroll into Lucas Oil Stadium and get a seat for less than you’d spend on lunch at McDonald’s? Because it’s not an attractive game. Period. 

Ohio State couldn’t beat Michigan (again), and Michigan lost five games as the defending national champion. If Ohio State or Michigan is in the building, you couldn’t get a ticket for less than 20 times the current get-in price.

‘Our players are really excited about it,’ said Oregon coach Dan Lanning.

Want to blame someone for the lack of interest? Blame Oregon. 

Blame the Ducks for running roughshod over the Big Ten in Year 1 of the marriage, where Oregon accepted half the media rights money just to get in the door. Then beat the hell out of everyone in its way to Indianapolis. 

Want to blame someone for the lack of interest? Blame Penn State, which may be the most boring 11-1 team in the history of 11-1 teams. Where is the cutting-edge Andy Kotelnicki offense we were promised? 

Penn State looks nothing like the wide-open, take no prisoners offense Kotelnicki built at Kansas and Buffalo and all those championship seasons in the NCAA lower division with Lance Leipold.

The Penn State offense looks like – and I know this is going to shock you – every other offense we’ve seen from Penn State under James Franklin. Play smart, don’t force plays, let a great defense set the tone.

Basically, Iowa with better skill players. And more talent at quarterback.

Want to blame someone for the lack of interest? Blame Michigan. You can’t stumble all over yourself for 11 games, and then do what you do best in the biggest game of the season — and eliminate the highly-anticipated Oregon-Ohio State rematch.

Maybe Michigan can ease up on the Buckeyes next season, if it’s not too much to ask.  

Imagine complaining about Oregon and Penn State playing for a championship, and the get-in price is a measly few bucks. Or complaining about Texas and Georgia playing again in the SEC championship.

That’s four of the top five teams in the College Football Playoff facing off in championship games.

Imagine the ACC, Big 12 and Mountain West Conference all playing de facto play-in games for a spot in the playoff, and complaining about it. Win a conference championship, get a CFP bid.

Yeah, that sure sucks.

Want to blame someone for the lack of interest, despite the Big Ten championship game winner likely becoming the No. 1 overall seed in the CFP? Blame the nattering nabobs of negativism on social media. 

The Big Ten championship is still a big deal. So is every Power Four conference championship game. 

If you want to go down the rabbit hole of eliminating the games, and eliminating the playoff selection committee and awarding bids based on who knows what, we can have that conversation. But until then, this nonsensical idea that championship games aren’t meaningful is laughable.

About a week ago, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin whined aloud why anyone would want to play in a championship game — if a loss could knock that team out of the playoff. Such an incredibly defeatist attitude. 

Because the winner of championship games – this is still about winning and losing big games, right? – is rewarded with a golden ticket, that’s why. 

They hand out rings for these games. Big, bright and beautiful rings that no one can take away. A life time of memories that, 30-40 years from now, will be the only thing that mattered in an athletic career.

And you want to take away these games because “they don’t mean anything.” To whom? And for what selfish reason? 

Expansion hasn’t ruined college football, hasn’t eliminated its rare passion and pageantry DNA or, of all things, minimized something so important as conference championship games.

It’s not about whining. It’s about winning.  

And who doesn’t want to win a championship?

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.