College Football Playoff to Extend to 12 Teams

Date: June 14, 2021

By: John Makuch

Kevin Abele//Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The College Football Playoff is most likely Going to expand to 12 teams according to ESPN and the Athletic. Expansion was an expectation, something inevitable, but 12 is a number much higher than original speculations of six or eight. With teams like Cincinnati missing out on the playoffs despite a stellar season, and a full one at that, expansion appeared necessary to give teams not named Alabama, Clemson, or Ohio State a fair chance at the Playoff.

 

A 12-team College Football Playoff would see the six top ranked conference champions, six at large teams, and the top-four conference winners receiving a bye week. This would also lead to some bowl games being removed and potentially being replaced as these Playoff games rather than a normal bowl game.

 

So, a top-four ranking will still be important as an extra week of rest could make all the difference especially when you’re talking about college athletes who need all the rest they can get. Those who have to play in the first round would need to play in four postseason games if they were to reach the National Championship, which would be near an NFL schedule’s worth of games. Teams that do make the playoffs will have players going to the NFL, so they will have to play that long of a schedule anyway, but it’s going to affect those who do not play professionally. This especially could conflict with schoolwork and final exams, as depth players are focused on this and using football as a way to receive an education.

The College Football Playoff is expected to expand to 12 teams as early as the 2023 season, per @Brett_McMurphy pic.twitter.com/NCd6NxzjMs

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 10, 2021

As for solely the football aspect, it changes the entire college football landscape. Less players will be opting out of bowl games as more players will be given the chance at playing for the final goal of a National Championship. A single regular season also loss no longer spells doom in terms of championship hopes, for example, a three-loss Iowa State would have been in the playoff had this format been in place. A three-loss team would be in the same part of the bracket as an undefeated Cincinnati or a one loss Texas A&M.

 

However, this does not ruin the value of the regular season, but it does alter the way we look at it. Home field advantage is given to the higher seeds in the first round, creating an extra home game for these schools to profit off of. A bye week in the top four also again gives that advantage of rest, so just making the new playoff will not be the goal, home field or a bye week remains an important goal to achieve.

Texas A&M Athletics

This creates more debates as to who should be in the four, who deserves home field, and who will be snubbed out of the Playoff as the No. 13 ranked team. 12 teams adds many great things to the world of College Football, but it still does not fix the parity issue we see in the game.

 

Programs such as Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma have made the majority of College Football Playoff appearances. Teams will now get a chance to beat them with this new format, but Coastal Carolina for example would not have had a chance against a team like Alabama. Recruits may be more willing to go to Group of five schools now however due to a real chance at a championship unlike before.

 

The No. 1 vs. No. 4-seed matchup in the current Playoff has created plenty of blowouts since it’s creation, even this past year’s National Championship game was not even close. A No. 1 vs No. 12-seed game would seem unnecessary and a guaranteed blowout if that were to take place. A new Playoff format will take a long time to change the fact that Alabama or Clemson are go to schools for the top recruits in the country.

Mike Meredith/CBS

This new Playoff format would introduce more high-profile Nationally televised games for the NCAA to take in huge profits from, but the real question is what it does do for the product. As previously mentioned, it may encourage recruits to go to other schools due to an opportunity, but recruits do not want opportunity most of the time, they want a guarantee. It may create more parity in the middle of the rankings, but the top will still remain clear and somewhat predictable. In a few years-time as recruiting cycles become affected by this, it could change for the better, but that remains unclear.

 

 As fans, there is only one thing we can do and that is sit back and watch this unfold. More Saturdays to watch football remains a positive for the fan, and hopefully players will relish the opportunity this gives them. But time will tell if this pans out better than the original two-team BCS model, or the four team College Football Playoff we will have to say goodbye to shortly.

John Makuch can be reached at john.makuch@student.shu.edu.

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