From the time the College Football Playoff selection committee announced its final four, there has been a niggling at the back of the mind that a mistake was made.
Not that Florida State belonged -- because with injuries and defections, the Seminoles were humiliated by Georgia in the Orange Bowl on Saturday. The Bulldogs set out to prove they were one of the best four teams in the country and did with a 63-3 beatdown of the ACC champions, who looked more like they belonged in the AAC.
It wasn't Texas, either. The Longhorns had beaten Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and Washington was undefeated.
One problem was Georgia, the two-time defending national champion, played its worst game of the season in the SEC Championship Game and fell to Alabama 27-24. It was the same score the Crimson Tide had beaten Auburn by a week earlier when they faced a fourth and goal from their 31, and scored the winning touchdown.
Alabama did not look like a national power in its 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan on Monday. If not for a couple of muffed punts, the Wolverines might have dominated because their defense was the best on the field.
New Year's Day started like the nation might have to endure another chorus of It Just Means More, the SEC's mantra.
LSU beat Wisconsin and Tennessee thumped an offense-less Iowa 35-0. But by the end of the day, the SEC was 5-4 in bowl games, same as the Big Ten -- which has a shot at the national championship with Michigan -- and the Big 12.
The conference with the most bowl wins no longer exists. The Pac-12 is 5-3 and, of course, has Washington in the championship game.
Alabama is just one example of what has happened in college football that gives the appearance of parity.
The transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness, which is nothing more than play for pay, have changed college athletics and it will get worse before it gets better, if it gets better.
Players are entering the portal to be bid on by schools who have money.
It is the opinion here that is what happened with former Arkansas Razorback KJ Jefferson. He was rumored to have made $950,000 last season but was looking at possible reduction, so he threw his name into the transfer hat and a week or so later ended up at Central Florida, not TCU or Mississippi State.
Good luck to him and thanks for the memories. Time to move on.
Of course, Arkansas is receiving from the portal, too.
Not every transfer is about money and that's one of the things that feels right about the national championship game.
Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. felt he needed a change of scenery and a new opportunity after four consecutive seasons at Indiana ended in injury.
For the Huskies, the 23-year-old has started 27 games, passed for more than 13,000 yards and has a 25-2 record. They will leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten on a high note regardless of how the championship game turns out.
Then there's the case of the Michigan quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, who at 20 has yet to transfer and appears ready to become the next legendary Michigan Man.
He committed to Michigan when he was 16 and the native of LaGrange Park, Ill., has never wavered. He played sparingly as a freshman, took the starting job the second game of his sophomore year and has led the Wolverines to a 26-1 record.
The last time an SEC team wasn't in the CFP was its first in 2015, and it appears the selection committee got it right as the two teams are undefeated, and that niggling of what was wrong is they waited a year too long to expand the playoffs.