The 12-team playoff has gifted two dozen teams with postseason hopes, filling the heads of alumni and boosters with previously unattainable dreams of championship glory … or, at the least, relevance in December. But the 12-team playoff has also given rise to a whole separate class: the Ruiners.
The more teams in the postseason hunt, the more chances there are for schedules, dreams, entire seasons to blast into pieces thanks to one unexpected, chaotic, all-in opponent. Northern Illinois skewed Notre Dame’s entire arc. Arkansas kneecapped Tennessee. South Carolina nearly took out LSU early, then blasted Texas A&M just last week.