In need of some holiday cheer?

On the day that college football will debut its shiny new 12-team playoff, I think it’s worth pausing for a moment to acknowledge the downside of the sports current trajectory.

More specifically, in everyone’s rush to get ahead, they’ve made some former comrades very vulnerable, and I think anyone who cares even a little bit about college football should be very concerned by what’s happening to Washington State.

First, the Cougs lost their conference as Washington State and Oregon State were the two teams left as the Pac-12 became the 2-Pac.

Then, they lost two quarterbacks to the transfer portal, Cam Ward to Miami last year and John Mateer to Oklahoma this month.

Now, they’ve lost their coach as Jake Dickert has taken the job at Wake Forest.

This is the cost of college football’s consolidation. By stilting everything in favor of the most powerful, we’re making it tougher for the plucky underdogs like the Cougs, and while I understand that no one set out to hose Washington State specifically, no one did much to prevent it either and that makes me a bit angry.

I know the Cougs aren’t interested in any sympathy from a snooty Husky such as myself. I also recognize that this isn’t the first time Washington State’s football program has been the victim of circumstance. The Cougs have overcome far more than this.

But as someone who has been to Pullman a few times, and feels a little bit envious of the loyalty and affection that engenders among all Cougars, I just want to acknowledge that it sucks what is happening to the Cougs right now.

The 12-team college football playoffs hadn’t even started before the system was deemed to be flawed by some folks, most of whom are located in the lower righthand corner of the country. While I don’t necessarily agree with this, I do believe the discontent proves an underlying reality: You’re never going to have a perfect playoff system for college football.

That was the subject of my column in The News Tribune this week.

In fact, I’ll go a step further: I don’t think there’s a clean way to stage a true championship game in college football. It’s impossible to make the objective evaluations necessary to accurately seed teams from different conferences. It works in basketball only because of the sheer number of teams in the field and the larger number of games in the season.

The Seahawks will make the playoffs if they win their final three games.

However, Seattle will play the most difficult of those three games on Sunday afternoon when it hosts Minnesota.

The importance of that game for Seattle’s playoff chances is going to be dramatically affected by what happens earlier on Sunday when the Rams (8-7) play at the Jets (4-10). If the Jets were to somehow win that game, the Seahawks could lose to the Vikings and still make the playoffs by beating the Bears on Thursday night and then defeating the Rams in the regular-season finale.

However … if the Rams win, it’s going to be a white-knuckle afternoon at Lumen Field.

First, there’s the fact that Seattle is playing Minnesota, which is 12-2 and still has a shot at earning the conference’s top seed in the playoffs.

Then, there’s the fact that Seattle is playing those 12-win Vikings with a quarterback who probably isn’t completely healthy. After all, Geno Smith was knocked out of last Sunday’s game against the Packers with a knee injury, and while all indications are that he’s going to start, Seattle is going to need a strong run game if it’s going to win.

That brings us to the Vikings defense, which has allowed the second-fewest points in the league this season while racking up 42 sacks, tied for fourth-most in the league.

If Seattle is going to win this game, two things need to happen:

1. The Seahawks absolutely can’t play from behind.

   If Seattle is in a position where it has to pass, Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores is going to wreak destruction, terror and mayhem. The blitzes are going to be diabolical.

   Of course, staking out a lead is easier said than done. After all, Seattle’s offense hasn’t scored a touchdown on its opening drive at any point this season.

2. Seattle has to have an edge in turnover margin.

   The Vikings aren’t all that good in taking care of the ball. They’ve committed 20 turnovers this season, which is just one fewer than Seattle which is tied for the sixth-most in the league. However, Minnesota has 28 takeaways, which is tied for second-most in the league. I would chalk that up to the Vikings’ pass pressure, which I mentioned earlier. All the more reason for Seattle to stay out of passing situations.

No matter where you’re at in your holiday shopping, I want you to know it could be worse. Seriously. I was in a hell of a pickle 19 years ago so if you’re feeling a little bit overwhelmed I want you to do two things:

1. Take a deep breath. The most important things about this time of year are the people around us, and while we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to find the right way to express our love and appreciation, these are just symbols. The real stuff, the things that are actually important, are the love and appreciation and you don’t need a gift or a ritual to convey that. Let’s love each other.

2. Go ahead and this story so you can laugh at my dumb ass.