As we head into conference championship week, this is the top 15 of the most recent AP Top 25 in college football.
Oregon
Texas
Penn State
Notre Dame
Georgia
Tennessee
Ohio State
SMU
Indiana
Boise State
Alabama
Arizona State
South Carolina
Miami
Ole Miss
Back in my day...
Back in the BCS era (1999 to 2013), they were only selecting two teams for a national championship game. Next Saturday's scenario would have looked like this:
Big 10 Championship: Oregon wins, Oregon's in. Penn State wins, Penn State's in.
SEC Championship: Texas wins, Texas is in. Georgia wins, and it's a heated debate whether to put in a 1-loss Oregon, a 1-loss Notre Dame, or the 2-loss SEC Champion Georgia.
Five teams in the mix. And this would happen almost every year; we'd have at least three teams, and as many as six, with legitimate claims to be in the national championship game.
So they expanded to a Final Four. But even then, like last year, the Final Four system excluded an undefeated Florida State and -- maybe even more stunning -- the 1-loss, two-time defending National Champion Georgia Bulldogs.
We couldn’t let that happen again, so now we've got a 12-team playoff. Surely, now we won't leave anybody out. Right?
Wrong. And don't call me Shirley…
The More the Merrier
Let's look back at that Top 15. Once you include a 3-loss Alabama team, why not South Carolina and/or Ole Miss? How 'bout BYU and Iowa State, they only have two losses. Miami has two losses. If Clemson beats SMU, they're in, but shouldn't SMU make it, too, with two losses? And if we've established that three losses are okay, should we not take a second look at Missouri, Illinois, and Colorado?
Or what about Tulane, they were in the conversation last week, why not 10-2 Memphis who just beat Tulane? Or what if Army finishes with one loss? What if UNLV wins the Mountain West, should Boise State also make the playoffs since they've been ranked in the Top 12 for weeks?
And why stop at 3-losses? What about Florida and Michigan? Both are 7-5, but they had the hardest schedules and are coming in hot — Michigan winning at Ohio State, and Florida fresh off wins against LSU and Ole Miss. These teams certainly pass the "What have you done for me lately" test.
Alright, so we've successfully narrowed it down to... 27 teams. That gives us no choice but to expand to 32. And once we're at 32, might as well go full March Madness style with a 68 team bracket...
In the Editing Chair
Mild absurdity aside, this same scenario plays out when writing a book, especially novels or non-fiction works over 200+ pages. After you've labored for years on that first draft, cutting anything out feels impossible. You've spent so much time with these characters, it feels like you should be adding more chapters. What about that character's backstory? Shoot, I never talked about the main character's siblings or parents. I gotta add that in. Maybe I should add an entire chapter on whale anatomy (shoutout Herman Melville).
Stephen King's rule, which I tend to support, is your 2nd Draft = 1st Draft --10 percent
And if you had to choose between cutting 5 percent or 20 percent, I'd vouch for 20.
Why? Again, it's like the 12-team college football scenario. Once you include or expand to more chapters, new considerations keep popping up. Why not his backstory? Why not hers?
By going the opposite direction, cutting rather than adding, you'll end up having 1 or 2 really hard chapters/scenes/paragraphs to part with (this is where the editing expression "killing your darlings" comes from), but you'll have a really tight second draft.
But what if I cut too much?
Third or fourth-place teams have won the 4-team college football playoff in 2014, 2017, and 2021. Basically, once every three years, meaning the original BCS system wasn't perfect, and we likely missed a few deserving champions.
So, there is a risk in setting the field too small. Cutting too much. You might cut something that would have worked out really well with your readers. Imagine if Airplane cut the "Don't call me Shirley" joke. We'd be missing an all-time classic line!
Seven things to consider:
The best 90 percent of your book is generally pretty clear, so as agonizing as the decision is, you're choosing between something ranked No. 91, 92, 93, etc.. If No. 88 gets cut instead it's not making a big difference. Remember those deleted scenes on DVDs? I'd watch those and almost every time think, "Yeah, probably wise to cut that out."
Work with an editor or even a friend(s), gather their feedback. If you're still stuck -- you want to keep it, they don't -- maybe flip a coin. And if the coin says don't keep it, well, best 4 out of 7... 😜
Work the deleted scene into a sequel or prequel.
Have a "deleted scenes" or "extra toppings" section either at the back of your book or publish that as a series of blog posts. Gives readers of your book additional content to enjoy and builds an ongoing connection.
Write those scenes for fun, and they'll show up in smaller, interesting ways. Maybe you write a Thanksgiving dinner scene, and turns out your main character is the youngest of six children. You might not use that particular scene, but this sibling order detail could arise in different, unexpected ways and add depth to the character.
"Retiring too early vs. staying too late." It stings when you cut that one joke/scene/line/etc. But it's a right of passage for an author. And compare that to the pain of revisiting your book a few years later and saying, "You know what, this was too long. I could've cut this out." Like football, sometimes it's better to retire on top with a little left in the tank vs. staying too long.
Add to the next edition of your book. I hesitated adding this because I like to think of books as permanent, set in stone, but really, they're not. We're not dealing with the Bible here. If a deleted scene/joke/paragraph haunts you for years later, add it to the next edition. It's super easy to do if you self-published; you're just uploading a new PDF. If you worked with a publisher, this could be harder, but publishers make updates in new editions all the time.
Hope this helps, and if the college football analogy wasn't working, 1. I'm impressed you made it this far, but 2. I'll have a "wedding guest list" version that will try and argue the same general points.
Finished your first draft and wondering what to do next? Hey, we're here to help! Feel free to reach out to library@longoverduestories.com. Would love to hear about your book-in-progress.
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