The ripple effects of the College Football Playoff have made their way into how major college football programs schedule, and not in a good way.
As blueblood programs have been left out of the CFP after three or even two losses, many have started scaling back their regular-season scheduling to increase their chances of winning more games. In recent weeks, we’ve seen reports that Alabama is trying to back out of a home-and-home series with Ohio State, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has openly questioned the value of scheduling teams like Ohio State and Notre Dame.
This week, the Longhorns officially canceled their planned home-and-home with the Arizona State Sun Devils, a program that made the CFP two seasons ago. This comes on the heels of similar series, such as Mississippi State-Texas Tech, NC State-South Carolina, and Arizona State-Virginia Tech, also being canceled.
Rather than playing a tough schedule full of games that fans and TV audiences want to watch, it seems as though the trend is to fill up on “cupcakes” as much as possible in order to increase the odds of qualifying for the CFP. On3’s Andy Staples absolutely hates this, as well as any fans who back this strategy.
“Please give me a crappier product. You were going to give me something cool, but please don’t do that.”
This attitude is becoming an epidemic among certain college football fanbases.https://t.co/rRGJoKJE4r pic.twitter.com/Lr5Cw4Pelx
— Andy Staples (@AndyStaples) February 18, 2026
“This is the part I’m more worried about just for people in general, because I don’t think consumers should ever advocate for a crappier product, yet certain college football fan bases, like Nebraska last year, like Alabama right now, like Texas here, seem to be perfectly fine with someone shoveling more crap their way instead of the good thing they were going to get,” Staples said on Wednesday’s episode of Andy & Ari.
“So the first response on this thread about Texas potentially bailing on Arizona State in the 2030s: ‘Notre Dame next, please and thank you.’ That’s Turnbow828. So Turnbow828, a Texas fan, would prefer that Texas play a crap game instead of playing Notre Dame. Instead of Notre Dame coming to Austin and Texas going to South Bend. They would rather see Texas play, I don’t know, Sam Houston State.
“That is the stupidest thing ever. That is the stupidest way to think ever. ‘Please give me a crappier product. You are going to give me something cool, but please don’t do that.’”
Unfortunately for Staples and others, it seems soft scheduling will be the cost of doing business moving forward, as getting into the CFP has become critically important to blueblood programs that want to maintain their status. College football is getting what it paid for.