Why some Kansas City Chiefs are split on ‘wild landscape’ of college football
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chiefs players evaluate playoff outcomes and support their college programs.
- Mahomes praises Texas Tech culture after Big 12 title and playoff berth.
- Notre Dame's Tranquill criticizes CFP selection as program declines bowl.
These are happy times for the alma mater of Patrick Mahomes. Not so much for Drue Tranquill’s.
As the Chiefs prepare for an AFC West home clash with the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, players whose schools helped shape the College Football Playoff weighed in on their teams.
Mahomes’ Red Raiders are rolling. Texas Tech appeared in and won its first Big 12 championship game, defeating BYU last weekend, and as the No. 4 CFP seed has earned a first-round bye in the 12-team field.
Mahomes, who played at Tech from 2014-16, has maintained a strong bond with the university, supporting the Red Raiders through financial contributions to Tech’s NIL and scholarships.
“It’s just really cool,” Mahomes said. “You can say you’re going to do things, and you can put money into it, but you’ve got to build a culture.”
Mahomes sees that happening at Tech, which will play the Oregon-James Madison winner in a national-quarterfinal game at the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1.
“For them to get into the playoffs,” he said, “win the Big 12 championship — which I know was their first goal — and have an opportunity to compete for a national championship, I’m excited to watch them go through the process.”
Tranquill, like most associated with Notre Dame, is trying to figure out the process. The Fighting Irish surprisingly were omitted from the CFP bracket announced on Sunday after being included in the field in projected brackets leading up to selection.
Last week, Notre Dame was ranked ahead of Miami and one spot behind Alabama in the previous poll. In that scenario, and with the Crimson Tide losing the SEC championship game to Georgia by 21 points, it seemed the Irish would have jumped Alabama and been included in the field.
That didn’t happen. Alabama remained in its spot, and Miami, which didn’t play in the ACC championship game, jumped over Notre Dame, leaving the Irish out.
Part of the furious Notre Dame response: The program announced it would not accept a bowl invitation.
“It’s unfortunate. I really thought Notre Dame was one of the top 12 teams in the country, and I thought coach (Marcus) Freeman had the boys humming,” said Tranquill, a Fighting Irish captain in 2017 and 2018. “They seemed like one of those teams that could win a national championship this year.”
The Irish, who fell to Ohio State in last season’s CFP championship game, have played in bowls in 14 of the previous 15 seasons. They’ve joined Iowa State and Kansas State as programs that qualified for the postseason with at least a 6-6 record and turned down a bowl invitation.
Coaching change was the primary reason for the Cyclones and Wildcats.
“It’s a wild landscape right now,” Tranquill said of college football. “They’ve got some problems to figure out.”