3 reasons my Michigan State football fandom is waning

2. Conference/Playoff expansion

Adding Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten didn't sit well with people and I can only imagine what they think about what is happening today.

West Virginia in the Big 12, Texas A&M in the SEC, and now USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon in the Big Ten? This isn't college football anymore, it's the NFL minor league.

Yes, adding more teams to one conference means more premium matchups which means more viewers which means more money for the school (which will surely drive tuition down, right?). But three time zones seems a little extreme for student-athletes. For football, it's insanely expensive to transport all the equipment and staff and over 100 players. For the non-revenue sports, going to Eugene, Ore., for a Tuesday night matchup (11 p.m. body clock start time), only to have to be back at school Thursday is a lot to ask, especially for someone who won't go pro in women's basketball.

Tradition is part of college football, but with TV networks running the show, tradition and rivalries get tossed in favor of what will get the most eyeballs on the screen.

With the expanded playoff, the tradition of every regular season game having meaning is gone. The three biggest games of the 2015 season would not have mattered nearly as much. Michigan would have wormed their way into the playoff even after losing to Ohio State (they dropped to 14 in the rankings but if playoff viewership was on the line, the committee would have put them at 12, let's be honest), the epic win in Columbus would not have meant as much as both teams would have still made the playoff, and both MSU and Iowa would have been in, regardless of the outcome.

Those games meant so much because each week was nearly a do-or-die mentality. The Nebraska loss was tough because their playoff chances took a huge hit. The lows were low and the highs were incredibly high. Now, the only highs that will come with the wins will come late in the season with teams being able to lose 2-3 games and still make the playoff. It's what separated college football from every other sport; another tradition gone.