3 years into the College Football Playoff, the semifinals have largely been duds

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Alabama’s Ryan Anderson returned an interception for a TD in the Tide’s 24-7 win. (Getty) Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinal blowouts by Alabama and Clemson continued a trend of unentertaining final four matchups since the playoff’s inception in 2014.
Hell, Alabama’s 24-7 win, a game far more of a blowout than the final score indicated, is the second-closest of the six semifinal games played to date. Ohio State’s 42-35 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2014 season is the only game that’s been decided by fewer than 17 points.
2014: Oregon 59, Florida State 20; Ohio State 42, Alabama 35
2015: Clemson 37, Ohio State 17; Alabama 38, Michigan State 0
2016: Alabama 24, Washington 7; Clemson 31, Ohio State 0
It’s a disturbing trend, especially for those who pay attention to television ratings. Because it’s hard to imagine that ratings will bounce back much, if at all, from the relatively abysmal New Year’s Eve ratings the 2015 semifinals posted.*All but the staunchest Clemson supporters likely found other New Year’s Eve entertainment ideas as the Tigers wore down the Buckeyes in the second half. And many casual fans probably had other plans during Alabama’s matinee performance.
But the Playoff quickly recognized the flaw in playing semifinals on one of the biggest party nights of the year and has already moved to rectify its scheduling errors when possible in the future.

Clemson dominated Ohio State. (Getty) With a 12-person committee that meets to watch games together and pores over mountains of data, the playoff is determined to find the four best teams — whatever the criteria may be — to play in the semifinals. And for the most part, the committee has done that. Yeah, yeah, Ohio State didn’t win its own conference, but the Buckeyes’ only loss came via a blocked field goal at Penn State.
And few believe Penn State, had it gotten into the CFP at No. 4, would have given Alabama any more of a game than Washington did.
Expanding the playoffs to eight teams could be a way to fix a lack of captivating games by way of sheer quantity. Games between Nos. 1 and 8 and Nos. 2 and 7 would be blowouts based on what we’ve seen the last few years, though the 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 games could provide some hope. And the potential for a massive upset is always a marketable draw.
But that’s a shortsighted “solution” for a playoff already publicly hesitant to expand anyway. More isn’t always better, even if it could be the most equitable solution for the inclusion of all Power Five conferences.
Other than waving a magic wand and telling Alabama and Clemson — teams responsible for four of the six blowouts — to stop being so good, there’s nothing to be done regarding the competition level of the semifinals. And that’s OK. Sometimes sports aren’t always filled with drama.
And besides, the first iteration of Alabama vs. Clemson was pretty good. If the second can match it, we’ll have forgotten about New Year’s Eve as soon as the game is over.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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