It all makes sense, but seeing college football go from the usual long ramp-up to the bowl games (even the teams without byes had more than 10 days) to quick turnarounds for the semis and the championship suggest the logistics (for the football itself at least) wouldn't be that challenging. But it's all about the hype, as that story says (originally, because they needed to sell tickets).
Until 2001 the game was always played in January, and from 2001 to 2022 it was still played on a single-digit date in February. I suppose the expanded schedule making it later and later is what makes it seem so long to me, more than the two-week break itself.
