I love the Playoff.

I’m not ashamed to admit that the system has made me a bigger fan of the sport. In the Playoff era, there’s not a debate in my mind that college football’s regular season is the best there is. And even though there are only 3 Playoff games, I’d argue that they’re more entertaining than nearly any non-Game 7 that you’ll watch in professional sports. It’s great.

But the trend that I don’t really like in the Playoff era is how we value non-Playoff bowls. Not to generalize too much, but we don’t treat New Year’s 6 Bowls with the same prestige as we did in the BCS era when only 2 teams battled for a national title. Now, many programs are in that Playoff-or-bust mode, which has in turn diluted some of the significance of the rest of the college football postseason.

Maybe that’s been partially fueled by the increasing number of players sitting out non-Playoff bowl games to prepare for the NFL Draft, which wasn’t even a thing during the BCS era.

Don’t worry. This isn’t a rant for or against that.

Instead, consider this a rant of why I love this LSU vs. UCF matchup. These are two programs who had more doubters than supporters in the preseason, albeit for different reasons.

The belief that the Knights’ claimed national championship was only the result of facing a checked out Auburn squad was on the minds of plenty of SEC fans. And the belief that LSU would only win 6-7 games with a brutal schedule and a coach on the hot seat was on the minds of plenty of others.

Now, both teams will play in a New Year’s 6 Bowl. It’ll serve as a reminder that the bowl system can still yield some major significance in the sport without a national championship being on the line.

Forget David vs. Goliath. This is just going to be a must-see matchup for every college football fan.

Even without McKenzie Milton, a national audience will tune into this game to see how UCF’s athletes stack up against LSU. Despite the fact that LSU will be without several key defensive players — Greedy Williams is the only one who said he’s skipping the bowl game — the Tigers are still loaded with more than enough talent to use “depth” as an excuse.

I love that LSU linebacker Devin White came out and tweeted this:

Would I support White’s right to sit out this game? Of course. It’s not my future paycheck that’s on the line. It’s my future entertainment. The fact that it coincides with White and LSU’s desire to get that 10th win and more important, their first New Year’s 6 victory of the Playoff era, is ideal.

And even without a real national championship on the line, this is still a “prove it” game for UCF. It always is when the Knights go up against a Power 5 school. The SEC narrative only makes this that much more intriguing.

Obviously the only two teams that UCF could face in a bowl game that would have created a juicier storyline were Alabama or Florida. That pretty much speaks for itself.

But we saw what winning a New Year’s 6 Bowl did for UCF last year. It led to an entire offseason worth of them trolling the entire college football world. The Auburn game created a narrative that we’re still talking about, and it will only gain even more momentum if the Knights take down their second SEC team in as many years.

And by “momentum,” I mean even more cop cars driving around Orlando with “UCF: undefeated national champions” on them.

It’s because of that reason that LSU is tasked with doing something that the anti-UCF crowd has been wishing for basically since last year’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. That is, ending the streak.

Ed Orgeron would also like to start a streak of winning double-digit games, going to a New Year’s 6 Bowl and finishing as a top-10 team. Last time I checked, that’s still a pretty noteworthy accomplishment. You wouldn’t know it by looking around the landscape of college football, though. Coaches like Gus Malzahn and Jim Harbaugh, both of whom accomplished that feat in the past 2 years, seem like public enemy No. 1 just because they haven’t been to the Playoff yet.

It’s encouraging to see someone like Orgeron talk about what a 10th win would mean for LSU. It should be celebrated and not questioned simply because it didn’t come during a Playoff run.

Non-Playoff bowl games still matter. They help shape perception, whether we recognize it or not anymore.

We’ll get a good reminder of that on New Year’s Day.