The College Football Playoffs conclude on Monday with Miami and Indiana squaring off in the National Championship Game in Miami. This year’s CFP is the second edition of the 12-team field.

The CFP regularly elicits some interesting reactions and story lines, and this year was no different. The national sports media had ample fodder to digest as the games evolved. Let’s look at some of the observations from this year’s tournament.

CURT CIGNETTI

Typically there is no short way to the top of the mountain, but if there is, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has a copy of the map. After a college playing career at West Virginia, Cignetti worked his way up the coaching ladder as an assistant at seven different Division I schools, including Alabama under Nick Saban. Interestingly, his first head coaching position was at nearby Indiana (Pa.), where he led the Crimson Hawks from 2011-2016. There he compiled a record of 53-17 and three Division II playoff appearances.

During that time, Cignetti’s Crimson Hawks made some trips to Lock Haven’s Hubert Jack Stadium and likely crossed paths with LHU alums Albert Jones and Terry Szuch.

Cignetti’s IUP squad beat Lock Haven in 2011 (56-6), 2012 (42-0), 2014 (21-16) and 2015 (38-13). The 2011 and 2014 matchups were at Lock Haven.

After leaving IUP, Cignetti went on to Elon (North Carolina) and James Madison, finally arriving at the Big Ten’s Indiana in 2024, where he has amassed a remarkable 25-2 record and two CFP appearances in two seasons.

Long a Big Ten bottom feeder, Cignetti has instilled a sense of discipline, urgency and confidence in the Hoosier program. In his initial introduction to Hoosier Nation, Cignetti remarked, “I win, just Google me.”

Cignetti is as focused as an air traffic controller during games and maintains a constant stoic look on his face, explaining that, ” I am thinking two or three plays ahead at all times and I don’t have time for high fives or rah-rahs on the sideline,” adding that coaches who lose concentration, lose games.

Asked by a reporter if he ever unwinds, Cignetti responded, “After the game when I get home and watch the game film there is always an ice cold Coor’s Light nearby.”

MIAMI

Playoff tournaments often have Cinderellas arise and this year’s comes in the form of Miami. Pegged as the 10th seed in the 12-team field, the Hurricanes proceeded to dispose of Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss in consecutive weeks. Floundering and questioning themselves after a shocking upset loss to SMU on Nov. 1, the Hurricanes held a closed-door meeting with players only after that loss and rebounded with a seven-game late season win streak to set up the date with Indiana.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Hurricanes were one of the top teams of college football, winning numerous conference titles, bowl games and national championships during that period. However, the dominance tailed off after the turn of the century, Miami becoming a less than average program.

The success of the current Hurricanes rest squarely on the shoulders of coach Mario Cristobal, a second generation Cuban-American who attended high school in Miami and then the University of Miami where he was an offensive lineman on Miami’s national championship teams of 1989 and 1991. Interestingly, while serving as a graduate assistant with the Hurricanes in 1988, Cristobal entered training to become a Secret Service agent, but second thoughts drew him back to coaching football, rather than protecting politicians.

Since becoming Miami’s coach in 2022, Cristobal has raised the bar higher each year, culminating in this year’s spot in the championship game. Cristobal’s mantra is ultra-physical football, always telling incoming players at the initial fall practice meeting: “If you don’t look forward to hitting and getting hit, you are in the wrong building.”

NIL AND THE PORTAL

One could argue that the biggest influence on college football since the legalization of the forward pass is the advent of player Name/Image/Likeness and the creation of the transfer portal. In tandem these two concepts have driven college football from its previous amateur-like status to a booming billion dollar enterprise rivaling some of America’s top corporations.

With the portal permitting players to transfer at will to the NIL pot at the end of the rainbow, college football has become as much professionalized as the NFL.

Boosters with heavy bank accounts have no problem digging deep to buy that QB for their favorite college team. Cars, boats, clothes, jewelry, or cash are all included in the booty for the elite player who chooses to go from one college football program to another. Player development is dead. Why spend time developing a QB when you can just buy one who has already proved his worth with another team?

The recent CFP is evidence of the impact of the NIL/portal. The final four teams of the playoffs — Miami, Ole Miss, Oregon and Indiana — all had QBs under center who were snatched from the portal. Like or not, college football is driven by money, and lots of it, and the distribution of it is now legal within NIL/portal guidelines.

Perhaps the best comment on the impact of NIL money comes from one of America’s oft-quoted football coaches, former LSU coach Ed Orgeron. Asked on a podcast the difference between recruiting college QBs before and after the NIL/portal, Orgeron replied: “Oh, that’s an easy question – before NIL, coaches took the cash in the back door, now they go in the front door.”