You are almost certainly old enough to remember when a college football playoff felt like an unattainable fantasy.

So we must forever be grateful for the four-team playoff that will expire after this season, for serving a greater purpose as a bridge to the 12-team field that will allow (FBS) college campuses — the best atmospheres in American sports — to host postseason games for the first time.

The playoff ensured a national championship would never again be split, but the format was inherently flawed, offering four postseason spots in a sport with five power conferences and imbalanced scheduling.

The first playoff selection (2014) set a poor tone — TCU was ranked third in the penultimate rankings, won its regular-season finale by 52 points, then dropped to sixth, instantly making irrelevant every set of future rankings released on ESPN before the season’s final one — but the title run of No. 4 Ohio State demonstrated how much the sport had been missing.