AUBURN | There sure was a lot of whining, complaining and general crybaby-ing over last week’s opening four college football playoff games that were decided by an average of 19.3 points.

Tennessee’s 25-point loss at Ohio State was the second-worst defeat but that didn’t stop many in SEC country complaining that Indiana, SMU and Clemson weren’t worthy of being in the playoffs.

Well, cry me a river. And how about that recency bias.

The previous six four-team playoffs included at least one 20-point or more loss each year. And in the 10 years of the college football playoffs, which included 30 games, 14 were decided by 20 or more points.

Were those 14 teams undeserving of being there? That list would include national runner-ups in 2023, 22, 20, 18 and 14.

There were plenty of blowouts in the BCS era too. Of the 16 national championship games between 1998 and 2013, five were decided by 20 or more points including USC’s 55-19 destruction of Oklahoma in 2004.

Yes, yes, yes, I know. Auburn should have matched up against the Trojans in 04. That game would have been more competitive, but it doesn’t change the fact that blowouts have been a big part of determining a national championship going back more than 25 years.

So let’s not act like this is something new or it’s an indication of some failure of the selection committee. It’s a continuation of what college football has been for decades.

I think that could be changing, and future first-round games will be more competitive due to the transfer portal and NIL spreading out the talent across more schools. But I’d also like several more years of results to evaluate before I draw too many conclusions on the competitiveness of the new format.

My only major complaint concerns this week’s quarterfinals and the following week’s semifinals.

They belong on college campuses.

Take No. 1 Oregon, for example. They were rewarded for their 13-0 record and Big Ten championship by having to travel 858 miles to play Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

The Buckeyes have lost two games but they may have the most talented roster of any team in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Texas and Penn State, which both hosted playoff games at home in the first round, get to play Arizona State and Boise State respectively.

I know which path to the national championship I would choose and it’s not the one the Ducks are on. If they get by Ohio State, there’s a good chance they’ll play Texas in the Cotton Bowl in the semis.

That seems more like a punishment than a reward for being the regular season’s best team.

Oregon should be playing its next two games in Autzen Stadium instead of these fake bowl sites. By far, the best part of the first-round games were the atmospheres at each home stadium.

That’s what makes college football special. Not playing on fake grass in some soulless dome hundreds or thousands of miles from home.

It’s time to ditch the bowls, at least in regards to the playoffs, and reward the best teams with home games. College football belongs in Eugene, Ore., and Athens, Ga., and perhaps Auburn, Ala., one day.

It’s the college towns, the traditions, the students and alumni, the atmosphere on campus that make college football so special.

The new 12-team playoff should be embracing the traditions and passion of college football and not turning its back on it after the first round.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 67 years to the beginning of a successful marriage and international singing partnership that lasted more than five decades. On Dec. 29, 1957, singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé married at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas four years after they first met as performers on Steve Allen’s late night show in New York, which would become the Tonight Show in 1954. Lawrence and Gormé released their first duet in 1954 and had their first big hit together with 1960’s “We Got Us,” which won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Duo or Group, and had another in 1963 with “I Want to Stay Here.” They recorded 35 albums together while Gormé had 40 solo albums and four more with Spanish group, Trio Los Panchos. Lawrence released more than 40 solo albums of his own. They had a number of solo hits including Gormé’s “Blame It On the Bossa Nova” in 1963 and “If He Walked into My Life” in 1966, and four by Lawrence in 1959’s “Pretty Blue Eyes,” 1960’s “Footsteps,” 1961’s “Portrait of My Love” and 1963’s “Go Away Little Girl,” which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 100. They also recorded a Christmas album, 1964’s That Holiday Feeling, which includes still popular versions of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Gormé and a duet of “Happy Holiday.” They also starred together in the Broadway musical, Golden Rainbow, from 1968-69 and hosted several T.V. specials with other top musical artists of the era, winning an Emmy Award in 1979.

Edith Gormezano was born in the Bronx, N.Y., in 1928. Her parents were Jewish and came from Turkey and she grew up speaking both English and Spanish. After graduating high school Gormé worked as an interpreter and sang with several different bands on the weekends before becoming a full-time singer in 1950. Sidney Liebowitz was born in Brooklyn in 1935 to Jewish parents and signed his first contract at the age of 16 in 1952 after winning a talent contest. He was just 17 when he was hired by the Steve Allen show the next year along with Gormé and Andy Williams. The couple remained married for more than 56 years until Gormé’s death in 2013. Lawrence passed away in 2024. They had two sons. David Lawrence is a composer, who wrote the score for High School Musical. Michael Lawrence passed away in 1986 at the age of 23 due to an undiagnosed heart condition.