With approximately half the season in the books, the college football playoff picture is becoming clear and, as of now, there are only nine teams that are good. To be good you must be undefeated and a member of a Power 5 conference (sorry SMU and Boise State). Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, LSU, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Penn State, Minnesota and Baylor remain undefeated and squarely in the hunt. You can dispute the inclusion of any of those teams on the good list, and I assume you are screaming at your screen reading the words Baylor and Minnesota on a good list, but every team on that list currently controls their own destiny. Win every game and you will be in the playoff.
If your team isn’t on the aforementioned list, don’t despair; there are different levels of good. Alabama has to be in the national title hunt to be good. If the Tide aren’t undefeated, they are bad; there is no middle ground for Tide fans. Oklahoma State is 4-2 and looks like they could win eight or nine games with a fun offense to watch. A majority of their fan base will be happy with that and say they are good. Iowa State is undefeated in October since Pope Gregory XIII got us our modern calendar and that is good for them.
Some teams aren’t on the good list and their fans can’t find anything to put them in their own good list, so they are average. Iowa hasn’t scored a touchdown against a Power 5 opponent since September 7th, so they aren’t good, but they are 4-2 and the games have been close so they certainly aren’t bad. Like most teams, they are average. The fans will keep coming to their games and they will have a reasonable chance to win and probably go to a bowl. But there are around 41 bowl games so you just have to be average to get to one. Average can be ok if you are ok with it. As long as you beat Nebraska; that always makes Iowa fans happy.
Average can also be bad. Nebraska is 4-3, seems likely to win seven or eight games this year, and is bad. Their fans wanted to win nine or ten games this year and be competitive. Losing to Colorado and Minnesota wasn’t on their to-do list and now, no matter how many games they win, they will not have a good season. Even if they beat Iowa (which always makes Nebraska fans happy) they will be playing in a bowl game early in the bowl season in a place that isn’t as warm as a playoff dome, and so the season is another lost year.
The point of all of this is that your team’s success this season, or lack thereof, is all about your perspective. Most people tend to swing the pendulum a bit too far with the wins and the losses. Find some things you like about your team and some friends to watch the games with to celebrate the good and complain about the bad. You’ve only got 12 or 13 opportunities this year to do so and the year is half over; best not waste any more of those Saturdays.