Looks like we have something wild brewing in the college football world…
When it comes to sports, there’s always gonna be some kind of controversy, especially in college football. Before 1998, voters decided who would be crowned national champions of college football.
Of course, that created a ton of complaints, so they decided to create the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in ’98, where the two best teams in the nation would play a championship game, and teams who finished with a .500 record or better would compete in other bowls.
There was a lot of disagreement about who the two “best teams” in college football were, so in 2014, the NCAA created a four team playoff between the top four teams.
Every year since, there’s been crying and gnashing of teeth on who gets in, especially at the three and four seeds. I can agree to this, as every year we’ve seen a blowout game in the first round of the playoffs. Just look at last year, number one Alabama beat number four Notre Dame 31-14 in the first round, and tons of people complained that the Fighting Irish didn’t deserve to get in the playoffs at all.
Many have even argued that the playoff isn’t fair to Group of Five schools, as UCF was the only team to go undefeated in 2017 and didn’t make the playoff (I was pulling for them until they deemed themselves “National Champs,” delusional smh).
So, what’s the NCAA’s next step that would end this controversy for good?
An expanded playoff.
The Athletic’s Nicole Aurbach tweeted out a report about a subcommittee recommending a 12-team playoff.
Now if the NCAA goes through with this idea, we’re gonna see a bunch of pro’s and cons weighed out.
First off, it does benefit group of five teams, because year in and year out we see at least one G5 team in the top 12 at the end of the year. They’ll finally have a chance to have their shot with the big boys of the power five.
On the other hand, we would see a lot more star players opt out of the postseason to focus on the NFL, as extra games lead to a higher risk of injury, crushing a player’s draft stock.
Also, extra games means more money that fans have to spend going to games, so that could end up being detrimental to the atmosphere and lower attendance by the national championship.
Nevertheless, it would be hella exciting to see it played out. It takes out all of the controversy on who should get in, and it would be cool to see different teams have their shot at a national championship besides the normal Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.
Just think, if the playoff would’ve expanded last year, we would’ve seen Coastal Carolina, Indiana, Iowa State, and Cincinnati have a shot to compete.
Tell me that wouldn’t be great for ratings right there…
Now? We wait.
