For all of the excitement an expanded College Football Playoff has created, there is at least one unintended consequence that seems to be revealing itself during Ohio State’s incredible postseason tear.

Rivalries no longer matter.

For all the dancing, prancing, flaunting and flag-planting we witnessed during rivalry week this season, Ohio State is proving teams can lose multiple times now — including its last game to its fiercest opponent — and suffer no consequences.

Of course, try telling Ryan Day in the moment that losing to Michigan doesn’t matter. He looked spooked by the ghost of Bo Schembechler walking off the field of Ohio Stadium. Jack Sawyer was ready to fight the entire state of Michigan. We were all still indoctrinated by the old set of rules.

There was a time when losing the last game of the season was a death sentence in college football. Those days ended long ago, but even since the inception of the four-team playoff, no team with two losses ever qualified. A second loss meant the police were showing up to the party. It was time to go home.

Not anymore.

We’ve never seen anything like what the Buckeyes are doing. As a result, it’s time for college football fans to recalibrate what matters and what doesn’t. If the Playoff indeed expands again in the coming years, rivalry games will continue depreciating faster than a used Lincoln.

I considered this while watching the Buckeyes dismantle Oregon in the first half of their quarterfinal game and then again while reading Joe Rexrode’s thoughtful piece this week on Ohio State fans still grappling with the Michigan loss. Ohio State fans have endured every stage of grief and jubilation within a span of about two months.

After the Michigan loss, I thought Ohio State would either lose to Tennessee or win the whole thing. There was really no middle ground, and I probably would’ve leaned more toward losing to Tennessee than winning it all. I was a prisoner of the old guard.

“We could quit, like we knew everyone wanted us to … or be the best team in the country, like we know we are.

We chose Option B.”@jacksawyer33 and @OhioStateFB are one win away. https://t.co/kAnmCf2sq5

— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) January 16, 2025

For years, Michigan losses felt like funerals and John Cooper was the caterer at the repast.

“I’m sorry for your loss. Have some baked beans.”

Now Ohio State has lost to Michigan and managed to make the Playoff in two of the last three years. It is a win over Notre Dame away from claiming another national championship.

Suddenly, Michigan doesn’t really seem to be a big deal anymore.

By next November, given what the Buckeyes have already accomplished, will we view Ohio State-Michigan or the Iron Bowl the same way?

Ohio State is practically assured of making the Playoff every year it enters the Michigan game with only one loss. Ohio State fans’ visceral reaction to losing to Michigan was in part because we have been conditioned for generations to believe a two-loss team, particularly when one of those losses occurs in the final game, signals the end of the season.

Alabama lost to Auburn a few years ago and still managed to play for a national championship, but it was the Tide’s only loss.

Imagine how much different Cooper’s legacy in Columbus might look today if 12-team playoffs were a thing in the 1990s? If Cooper had a meaningful chance to right his Michigan wrongs in a postseason tournament?

The Jim Tressel era may never have occurred.

GO DEEPER

Notre Dame, Ohio State already own college football’s worst losses by national champions

A big part of what has made rivalries so romantic in college football is their impact on postseason fate. Teams eliminated from meaningful bowl games could at least wreck your enemy’s house and make them miserable, too. Only we’re starting to realize how the Playoff has stripped away all of those punitive damages.

Day said he was “very, very grateful” for this expanded format. No kidding. His house might be on Zillow without it.

“I do think the new format has allowed our team to grow and build throughout the season,” Day said. “And as much as losses hurt, they really allow us as coaches and players to take a hard look at the issues and get them addressed.”

Still writing our story… 📝 pic.twitter.com/2vg2sk6ODN

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) January 15, 2025

As college football continues to blur deeper into the professional game, fans of Power 5 teams must also begin altering their expectations.

Does anyone care or even remember that the Green Bay Packers were a wild-card team in 2010? What about the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005 or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020? What’s more important, the fact they didn’t win their division or that all three teams won Super Bowls?

The same is true now in college football. How long before the right three-loss SEC team makes the Playoff? Impossible? We might find out if the field ever expands to 16 teams.

Winning the conference doesn’t really matter — all four conference champs were eliminated in their first games. Losing to a rival doesn’t have to matter.

As players rightfully begin to cash in on the riches of the college game, school presidents and athletic directors are finally saying out loud what truly matters most.

Money.

Ryan Day and the Ohio State fan base are forever grateful.

(Photo of Ryan Day and Jack Sawyer celebrating at the Cotton Bowl trophy ceremony: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)

The Miami Dolphins will travel to Europe in 2025. On Friday, the franchise revealed it was the team selected by the NFL to play in the league’s first-ever game in Madrid, Spain. 

The NFL did not immediately provide a date for the game, but it will take place during the 2025 regular season. The Dolphins’ opponent will also be announced at a later date.

The Dolphins will be the designated “home” team at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the longtime home of Real Madrid CF. The venue features a soccer field that retracts to make way for a field that can be used for American football. The stadium has a capacity of just over 78,000.

“We are thrilled to play the NFL’s inaugural game in Spain, a country of rich history, tradition and passion and home to a vibrant Dolphins fan base,” Dolphins president and CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a statement.

“There is a hunger for football in this market, and we are proud to join with the NFL in growing the game internationally while engaging with old and new fans alike. With the unique synergy between Miami and Madrid, we believe this is only the beginning for us in this incredible region, and we look forward to bringing the excitement and community of Dolphins football to Spain in 2025 and beyond.”

EX-NFL STAR DISCUSSES WHY DEION SANDERS SHOULD STAY IN COLLEGE

The Dolphins announced their selection to play in Madrid less than a year after the NFL revealed it would host a game at Bernabéu Stadium at some point during the 2025 season. The Dolphins also hold international marketing rights in Spain as part of the league’s Global Markets Program.

An aerial view of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium July 23, 2007, in Madrid, Spain. (Angel Martinez/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

“The exciting first-ever game in Spain underlines the NFL’s continued commitment to expanding its global footprint and reaching new audiences across the world,” said Brett Gosper, the league’s head of Europe and APAC.

Next season’s game will mark the Dolphins’ eighth on the international stage. The Dolphins are 2-5 in games played outside the U.S., with Miami’s most recent appearance in 2023, when they took on the Kansas City Chiefs in Germany.

A football before an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs at the Waldstadion in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov. 5, 2023. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)

The NFL has been aggressively expanding its global footprint in search of new fans and revenue streams. Partnering with one of the most successful soccer clubs in the world is a branding bonanza.

“This partnership with the NFL will bring one of the world’s most prestigious sporting competitions to the Santiago Bernabéu, a stadium which has welcomed millions of passionate fans from around the globe to enjoy incredible sporting experiences,” said Emilio Butragueño, Real Madrid’s institutional relations director.

The NFL can schedule up to eight regular-season games internationally next season. In addition to the game in Spain, London is slated to host three games, while one game will be played in Germany.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The time had come, the Lakers decided, to make a choice.

Since trading for D’Angelo Russell and playing him with Austin Reaves, the two guards largely alternated in the spotlight surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The touches, the shots, the responsibility — they usually always were split.

But gradually over the course of this season, that changed. Russell moved to the bench, Reaves becoming the primary ballhandler. And a trade with Brooklyn in December cemented it — the Lakers had cemented it.

Reaves was going to be their guy.

“He’s in his process and he’s taking the opportunity and he’s running with it,” James said. “Literally running with it. And I love every moment that he’s given the opportunity to go out and showcase his talent with the best players in the world and he’s showing every night that he belongs. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

Friday’s game was hardly beautiful, but it was necessary.

In Russell’s first game back in Los Angeles since being dealt to the Nets, Reaves had a career-high 38 points to help drag the Lakers across the finish line to a 102-101 win.

Russell had a chance to win the game — after a string of Reaves misses in the final two minutes — but his final three-point attempt didn’t fall.

And while Reaves and James got hot in the fourth quarter, the game was hardly as easy as it could’ve been — and they knew it early.

James backed up past midcourt and away from the Lakers’ bench after he made a three-point shot to end the first quarter. He felt that something wasn’t totally right in the building, that the rhythm was off and that the energy was flat.

So he put his hands in the air and begged for cheers. The crowd, having just witnessed 12 minutes of basketball at its most mild, eventually obliged.

Nothing came easy for the Lakers (22-17) against a team fresh off a 59-point loss to the Clippers. And the crowd eventually got into it, but only when it became clear the Lakers actually might lose.

Lakers coach JJ Redick was upset with the effort, particularly on the defensive end.

“We weren’t very good tonight,” he said.

James and Reaves, though, scored 25 of the Lakers’ 30 fourth-quarter points.

“JJ wasn’t happy on the sideline. I’m sure y’all could guess because we weren’t playing well, so it was warranted,” Reaves said. “So, me and Bron had a conversation at center court. ‘Just figure out a way to win the game.’ We know it hasn’t been pretty. We know we’ve made a lot of mistakes, but a win in the win column doesn’t matter if it’s [by] one or 60. It’s a win. And that’s all that matters.”

The Lakers again were without Dorian Finney-Smith, who remained away from the team because of the birth of his child. The team also learned shortly before game time that Davis wouldn’t play because of issues connected to an ongoing foot problem that’s kept him on the injury report for most of the last month. The Lakers listed him as “probable” with plantar fasciitis, and Davis went through his pregame workout before being downgraded to out.

It should’ve been no excuse.

Brooklyn was without its leading scorers, Cam Thomas and Cameron Johnson, with Johnson expected to be one of the most sought-after players before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

The Lakers, in fact, have spoken with the Nets (14-28) about Johnson, according to people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly. But the cost for the 6-foot-8 forward, who is averaging 19.6 points and shooting 42.8% from three, is thought to be two first-round picks — a steep price that could drop as the deadline gets closer.

The Lakers won’t need to make a trade before their next game to get some help. They should have Finney-Smith and Davis back Sunday when they play the Clippers for the first time in the Intuit Dome, the city rivalry moving to a new venue.