It took five years. Took some legal wrangling and financial fireworks from all involved in the NIL boom era, but we’re finally here.

There’s not a single team in college football that’s clearly better than all others. Not even a group of three or four or five. 

No Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State of years past. Just a whole lot of on any given Saturday. 

Or the NFL-ication of college football. Good, everyone is the enemy of great.

Parity has arrived in the race for the College Football Playoff.

“We have to evolve more and continue,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said after the Canes beat Pitt silly, and remained one of three FBS unbeatens by avoiding the poll carnage of the last three weeks.

We haven’t even reached November in the USA TODAY Sports Playoff Predictor, and already there have been losses from 10 teams ranked in the Top 10 of the US LBM Coaches Poll — in the last three weeks alone.

Blame whatever you want: quarterback injuries, home-field advantage, poor officiating, or just plain bad luck. The reality is the NIL era evened rosters, and eliminated the super teams. 

Or even the really good teams. 

Consider this absurd stretch of wins and losses on any given Saturday among the 10 teams of the best conference in college football:

Oklahoma lost to Kentucky, which lost to Alabama, which lost to Georgia, which lost to Auburn, which lost to LSU, which lost to Ole Miss, which lost to Texas, which lost to Florida, which lost to Missouri, which lost to Ole Miss.

Now that we’ve dealt with that nonsense, it’s time to dive into this week’s Playoff Predictor — which lost any sense of normalcy over the last three weeks. 

College Football Playoff predictions

First-round byes

Miami

Georgia

Ohio State

Indiana

First round

(12) Boise State at (5) Kentucky

(11) Alabama at (6) LSU

(10) Notre Dame at (7) Utah

(9) BYU at (8) UCLA

Quarterfinals

BYU-UCLA winner vs. (1) Miami 

Notre Dame-Utah winner vs. Georgia (2)

Alabama-LSU winner vs. (3) Ohio State

Boise State-Kentucky winner vs. (4) Indiana