THE NEW MODEL: Playoff expansion

With Talks About The CFP Expanding to 24-Teams, Is This The Smart Move?

On Tuesday, leaders of the CFP agreed to start a 30-day negotiating window with ESPN regarding an expanded, 24-team playoff field. The new format could be put into place as soon as next year.

The decision to start negotiations, however, does not mean that a decision has been made on whether or not to expand.

The format would include the 23 highest ranked teams, along with one spot reserved for a non-Power Four champion.

The top 8 teams would receive first round byes. The first two rounds would be on college campuses. 

Is This a Good Move for College Football?

In my opinion, and many others, another expansion of the College Football Playoff would be detrimental to the sport.

An expansion to 16-teams may not change a whole lot, but an expansion that doubles the amount of playoff-bound teams, three seasons after tripling this amount, is absurd. 

Personally, I would argue that the 4-team playoff wasn’t withstandable. In just ten seasons of the 4-team playoffs (40 total spots), Ohio State, Clemson and Alabama made a total of 19 CFP appearances.

The only other teams to make multiple were Oklahoma (4), Georgia (3), Michigan (2), Notre Dame (2) and Washington (2). Now, with the expanded College Football Playoff, we get more opportunity for teams like Indiana, SMU, Arizona State and Boise State to compete for a National Championship.

Without Indiana’s CFP appearance in 2024, where they snuck in as the 10-seed, their 2025 National Championship likely wouldn’t have happened. 

An expansion to 12-teams was more than enough. While a spot is already reserved for a non-Power Four team, this isn’t even needed. Boise State would’ve comfortably made the CFP in 2024, even without a reserved spot.

This season, Boise State would also find themselves in the top 12 if they win out, despite a Week 1 loss to Oregon. In other words, anyone can find themselves into a 12-team playoff, another 12 spots aren’t needed. 

This past season there was plenty of debate on who should obtain the last two at-large bids. Fans of Alabama, Miami, Notre Dame, BYU, Texas and Vanderbilt have all made arguments that they deserved a spot.

Making the playoff a 24-team format would only increase the amount of teams that believe they should have a shot to compete for a National Championship.

For example, this past season James Madison would’ve been the last team in. A team like Tennessee, who was 8-4 and playing in the SEC, would’ve been left out. Who can possibly determine whether a 12-1 non-Power Four team or an 8-4 SEC should get that last spot.

The 24-team model would just lead to more debates, as rankings that far outside of the top teams in the country are simply arbitrary.

Also, as hard as it is to admit it with a new and more entertaining playoff structure, College Football has always been and should always be a regular season sport. No matter how awesome the National Championship game is, what we remember as fans are the rivalry games, the big upsets, field stormings (maybe not when you are a four touchdown favorite), and crucial matchups in November that decide the fate of teams across the country.

I think back to last year, the last week of the season when Alabama played Auburn at Jordan Hare Stadium. Alabama was the way better team all season, but the atmosphere and circumstances of that game made it a closer game. Alabama needed to win to go to the CFP, and other fanbases around the country, like Notre Dame and Miami, were hate-watching the Crimson Tide, hoping that their team could have a locked up playoff-bid. In a 24-team model, this doesn’t happen. Alabama has a playoff spot locked up, and like we see in the NFL, maybe their top players don’t even play. With one simple expansion, rivalries like the Iron Bowl, that has seen the Milroe Miracle and Kick Six, can lose its meaning. Even top 10 matchups, like Texas vs Ohio State this upcoming weekend will become meaningless. We all know they will be in the top 24 at the end of the season anyway, right?

This past College Football Playoff also is direct evidence for why an expansion would be disastrous. Tulane and James Madison both snuck into the CFP, despite being ranked 20th and 24th respectively, due to rules that shouldn’t be a thing in the first place.

They were both absolutely slaughtered in the first round by Ole Miss and Oregon, games that received way lower viewership and interest from fans. If this past season was a 24-team playoff, it would have featured first round games like Alabama vs James Madison, Miami vs Iowa, Notre Dame vs Georgia Tech and Texas vs Tulane.

All of those games would be close to a three touchdown spread, some even way worse. Who wants to watch this? Even second round games would’ve been blowouts. You thought Indiana vs Alabama was a depressing round two game? How about Ohio State vs Utah? 

So why does the CFP want to expand? The answer is simple. Money. Like everything else that’s great in this world that gets ruined, money is the root of the problem. More games means more broadcasts, and more broadcasts means more money for companies like ESPN.

However, will some of these lopsided matchups even draw much more viewership than bowl games? Maybe a little bit, but College Football shouldn’t take such a massive hit for a couple million more views for big corporations.

Tradition, rivalries, exciting endings and hype on college campuses before big games. That’s what makes this sport. And I sure hope we don’t lose that.