In recent years, we’ve seen television exert massive influence on college football. It doesn’t take Nick Saban to prompt us to conclude that the networks have had outsized sway in realignment, which has led to some convulsive change in the sport.

If adding USC to the Big Ten’s membership creates more attractive matchups, that means more eyeballs trained on those matchups, more money incoming, more cash distributed. Feel free to let your imagination run wild as to how much those networks might be leaning on conference commissioners, presidents and athletic directors.

Of course, we’ve long since become accustomed to networks controlling dates and game times, often to the discomfiture of the fans attending the games.

Now, in the past two days, we’ve seen something that smells suspiciously like TV’s reach has infiltrated even farther into what we’re watching.

I don’t know this for sure, and you don’t either. It’s speculation. But it seems awfully odd that Miami can play 60 minutes against Ohio State in the quarterfinals without a penalty. Or in turn, that Ohio State can be flagged a mere two times for 15 yards.

Or that, in the Rose Bowl, both Indiana and Alabama can be penalized a single time each, for a combined 15 yards.

In the four quarterfinals, only one team (Texas Tech) was flagged more than four times – and that was for a relatively benign 36 yards.

I suppose the skeptics could make the case that these teams being high-achievers, they’re naturally not going to be penalized a lot. They’re good, obviously.

The cynic in me is more inclined to think that TV moguls have made it clear to playoff brass that they don’t want a game riddled with penalties. Or, possibly, supervisors of officials have gotten the message across to officiating crews that they want the games to be relatively free of flags. If that’s the case, I think it’s safe to assume they haven’t arrived at that conclusion free of input.

I wouldn’t argue that most of us would prefer games not be overly marred by penalties. But I can’t help but raise an eyebrow to the notion that Miami could commit 91 penalties for 752 yards during the regular season and suddenly turn immaculate – against an opponent that was ranked No. 1 for much of the season.

(I'm reminded of the 1991 Cotton Bowl, when one of Dennis Erickson's Miami teams thrashed Texas, 46-3, committing 16 penalties for 202 yards. As I recall, that was pretty entertaining -- in its own lawless way.)

Indiana committed 49 penalties this season, and then, in the biggest game in school history, in the sport’s most hallowed venue, committed one. Alabama was flagged 66 times leading into that game – and once Thursday. Neither of those season numbers are excessive, but still . . .

If the rules of the game somehow become something different from what we’re watching the previous three months, that seems a topic worth exploration.