The 24-team playoff has one big benefit: Your Saturdays are free again - USA Today

I could list everything I hate about the proposed 24-team playoff, but why rehash old grievances?

Let’s take a moment and consider the positives about a super-sized playoff that’ll create room for a bundle of mediocre teams.

In the current format, a loss can feel like a soul-sucking event for a fanbase that had its sights set on the playoff. With a mega-bracket, you’ll be able to celebrate your losses. Your team only lost by two scores to a ranked opponent? Well, fire up the cigars! That “good loss” becomes a resume booster!

How many times have you said, “Pay the man!” after a coach delivers a great season? Well, now there will be even more opportunities to “Pay the man!”

When your Head Ball Coach secures the last at-large bid with an 8-4 record and then gets waxed in the first round, expect the university to fire off the bonus cannon for the coach. Oh, and don’t forget the coach’s boss. The athletic director needs a playoff bonus, too!

First, pay the bonuses. Then, cue up the contract extensions and the raises. You’ve got a playoff coach. Wouldn’t want him to slip away. Pay the man!

A longstanding debate used to center on whether it was OK to get married on a fall Saturday. Detractors of fall weddings would argue that friends don’t ask friends to skip a day of college football mania to attend nuptials. A pumpkin cupcake with a side of spiked punch could never match the giddiness of seeing six top-15 teams lose on your big screens.

But, with each individual Saturday becoming far less consequential, it’ll soon be OK to skip the games, buy the bread slicer off the registry, and watch the happy couple tie the knot.

I hear fall is a lovely time to head to Europe. You can pack up the kiddos while school is on fall break and get a taste of Oktoberfest in Germany or experience the autumn grape harvest in Italy. So what if you miss two weekends of games? The real season won’t start until November in the mega-playoff era, so commit to some October travels.

If the playoff grows into a five-round affair, you might be wondering how you’re going to afford playoff tickets and the accompanying flights and hotels. Well, it’s a no-brainer: You can pause YouTubeTV for September and October.

Restart the streaming service again in November, when you can watch the 24-team playoff race take shape. Then, once the 20th-seeded team you root for loses by four touchdowns to Ohio State in the playoff, you can pause the subscription again in mid-December. Money saved is money earned.

Everybody and their grandmother is gambling on sports nowadays. Hey, I get it. Having a little scratch on the ACC game airing on the CW adds a certain thrill to it. But once the 24-team playoff arrives, you’ll be busy attending fall weddings and traveling to Tuscany. Plus, you’ll have paused your streaming service.

Everyone knows it’s more stimulating to bet on games you’re actually watching, so once the 24-team playoff allows you to pay less attention to the regular season, you can finally kick that gambling habit.

Even if you scrimp on the streaming packages and dial back your FanDuel activity, I’m worried that won’t free up enough cash for the weddings and European travels you’ll be scheduling for the fall. Plus, you’ve got playoff trips to fund. So, a few more lines might need to be slashed from the budget. That’s an easy call: Cancel your season tickets.

This is especially recommended for fans of blue-blooded programs that will clinch a de facto playoff bid in the preseason. (Ahem, Notre Dame.)

Sure, the tickets have been in your family’s name for 50 years, and the nostalgia will be tough to let go of, but let’s face it: The regular season just won’t be worth the price of admission anymore. Not with this super awesome playoff that’s coming!

Anyway, you’ll be too busy with fall weddings and Oktoberfest to attend regular-season games. Glory be.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.