"Like so many of history’s great tragedies — the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, the French Revolution, the end of ashtrays in cars — the decline of college football began with reasonable calls for reform. There really was something odd about the fact that Michigan and Nebraska, two undefeated football teams that had never played each other, were both able to call themselves the 1997 national champions. Surely, fans thought, it should be possible to come up with a system that determines who the real champion is."
The article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/opinion/usc-ucla-big-ten.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20220714&instance_id=66590&nl=the-morning®i_id=107436819&segment_id=98452&te=1&user_id=2ce63d9d1472b7ee3a1b09e2d4f6b42e