Get your Cotton Bowl tickets now. Don't wait. It's that important. To a neutral college football fan, this Wisconsin–Western Michigan showdown is even more important than the College Football Playoff semifinals.
Why? Because the outcome of this game will determine how soon we see an expanded college football playoff field.
A win for Western Michigan would be HUGE for the playoff-expansion movement. It would cap a 14-0 season for the Broncos and land them in the exclusive (and unfortunate) club of undefeated teams that never had a shot at a National Championship. Recent members of this club include TCU (13-0 in 2010), Boise State (14-0 in 2009, 13-0 in 2006), Utah (13-0 in 2008 and 13-0 in 2004), and Auburn (13-0 in 2004).
Western Michigan would be the first since the Playoff Era began.
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Based on the final CFP committee rankings, the eight-team college football playoff bracket would be absolute madness this year, but would still not feature undefeated Western Michigan. So what's the answer? Would another win for the Broncos really do anything? Short answer: yes.
Nick Saban wants to see a more "NFL-like" system, which presumably means more teams. With a 12-team playoff field, every Power 5 conference champion and any undefeated Group of 5 team would make the cut, as would a six other at-large teams. There are a ton of ways to make it work. Some crazier than others.
Long story short, it'll be a big deal if Western Michigan beats Wisconsin.
The Badgers are legit. They beat LSU 16-14 to start the year and only suffered two losses during the regular season — both by one touchdown — at Michigan and vs. Ohio State. Even after the losses, the Badgers were in the playoff conversation until the very end.
Wisconsin was No. 6 in the College Football Playoff Rankings going into championship weekend. If Washington lost to Colorado in the Pac-12 Championship game and Wisconsin beat Penn State in the Big Ten title game, the committee would've had to decide between the Big Ten Champion Badgers, the Pac-12 Champion Buffaloes, and Michigan for the final playoff spot.
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The point is, Wisconsin is a playoff-caliber team. Western Michigan would cap a 14-win season with a win over a playoff-caliber team and have nothing to show for it.
It's easy to point to Western Michigan's strength of schedule and say they'd get blown out in the first round of the playoffs. That's probably true. More often than not, Group of 5 teams would lose in the first round of the playoffs, no matter how many teams were involved, and many times it wouldn't be close.
But it wouldn't happen every time. A 15-seed has upset a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament eight different times. That wouldn't happen in football, you say? Boise State beat Oklahoma. Appalachian State beat Michigan. FCS teams beat FBS teams every year. It does happen.
And even if it didn't happen, if no Group of 5 team ever won a game in an 8 or 12-team format, we'd still get at least one more week of football! At least four more games! So if you're a college football fan from somewhere other than Wisconsin, you're a Western Michigan fan for the next two weeks.
The Cotton Bowl kicks off Monday, January 2 at 1 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.
