On Monday night, Michigan will play Washington in a college football game for the national championship.

It should be a great game, featuring arguably the two best teams in the NCAA. But while this game is a bright spot of this season’s bowl games, there was a lot of darkness in some of the other contests.

For starters, Florida State finished the regular season undefeated and was a top-four team in most regular season polls, but was snubbed by the playoff committee when its quarterback got injured in the last regular game of the season.

Whoever heard of a team disqualified from playoff contention due to an injury?

It wasn’t an injury which ultimately doomed Florida State, which played the number five team - Georgia - in the prestigious Orange Bowl. After all, the Orange Bowl should have been a showcase to prove they truly deserved to be ranked at the top.

Instead, Florida State lost by an embarrassing 63-3 score, with thanks to something in college football called the transfer portal. The portal allows players - usually graduate students with another year of eligibility or in some other circumstance - to enter their name on-line for consideration of transfer to another school.

The transfer portal actually started in 2018 but never had an impact as it did this year.

A total of 28 Florida State players did not play against Georgia, many of them starters. That includes nine players opting out to declare for the NFL draft and 19 players who have entered the transfer portal.

Syracuse and Ohio State were two other examples of the portal having an impact on the team’s outcome, and marring what should have been great season finale performances.

Syracuse got shut out by South Florida, 45-0, in the Boca Raton Bowl; the largest point-margin loss ever by an ACC school in a bowl game.

Fifteen Syracuse players chose not to play in the game including first- and second-string quarterbacks. The QB for the game was the team’s tight end but did have some signal-calling experience at Michigan.

Then there was the Cotton Bowl Game, Ohio State against Missouri, which the Buckeyes lost 14-3. Ohio State was 11-1 in the regular season, it’s only loss was to Michigan. Missouri was 10-2. Among the OSU players who didn’t make the game was outstanding quarterback Kyle McCord, who entered the portal with intentions to transfer to Syracuse. He was on the Syracuse sideline for that bowl game.

The fuse was missing on the normally explosive offense of Ohio State, much to the chagrin of the team’s fans.

Next year the national playoff schedule in college football expands to 12 games.

It’s hard to envision interest in such a setup if the teams playing don’t consist of the individuals that helped them qualify. How can a team with only half its regulars even be considered as a viable contender?

The portal is good for players, giving them leeway in their careers. But it has some major faults.

It means the same teams playing in post-season competition aren’t necessarily the same ones that achieved the record to reach this point.

This year’s bowl season fell short of many expectations. It certainly wasn’t fair to the fans, especially those loyal ones who made the trip to the bowl games to see continued success.

By Ron Gower | tneditor@tnonline.com