I’ll break some rules here and reveal my bias on this topic before I dive in. I love college football.
I think it is the greatest sport on the planet. The band, the students, the stadiums, the hatred, the rivalries, the field storming, marching the goal posts into the river, the tree poisoning after a painful loss. I love all of it.
It’s beautifully dysfunctional - kind of like humanity itself.
But when it really comes down to it, what we really love about college football is the drama and passion that come with it. It’s what makes the sport unique.
There are only so many games that can truly mean something. When the stakes are at their highest, that’s when the magic happens.
That’s why I find the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) board voting in favor of the idea of a potential 24-team College Football Playoff gravely concerning.
When you expand the playoff to 24 teams, you take all of that magic from the regular season and hand it over to a handful of games in January.
Even at 12 teams, we have already lost some of that magic.
Never mind the fact that 11 and 12 seeds are 0-4 in the newly expanded playoff format, with losses of 14, 17, 28 and 31.
And what’s the price we’ve paid for these cannon-fodder matchups?
Look at the Big Ten Championship this year. Two undefeated great football teams. No. 2 Indiana pulls the improbable upset over blue-blooded No. 1 Ohio State.
That should have been a huge deal. Instead, it’s an afterthought no one talks about. Both teams were comfortably in the playoff with a bye.
Yawn.
Look back to 2006. In a similar situation, Ohio State plays Michigan for a shot at the national title. Both teams are 11-0. No. 1 vs. No. 2.
Ohio State wins a thriller 42-39, and to this day people in Big Ten country still dub it “The Game of the Century.”
In 2013, Harvey Updyke was so mad Alabama lost its chance to play for a national title after the infamous “Kick Six” game, he traveled to Auburn and poisoned the iconic Toomer’s Corner oak tree. You think the vitriol that fuels such a fiendish act comes from a playoff seed dropping or losing a first-round bye?
Think of the 2007 season and its pandemonium.
Michigan getting upset by FCS Appalachian State? It’s a footnote in a 24-team playoff. Just don’t lose three more times if you’re on the bubble.
USC losing to Stanford as a 41-point favorite? No big deal. You’re still in the playoff with a bye.
People in West Virginia talk about the loss to 4-7 Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl like it was a traumatic event in their lives. Expand the playoff, and it’s just a mark against WVU’s resume for seeding in the upcoming 24-team playoff.
I remember watching LSU’s triple-overtime thriller against Arkansas that season. It was devastating. Not because of the rivalry loss. Not because it hurt LSU’s playoff odds.
Because in our minds, LSU’s championship hopes were dashed. There had never been a two-loss champion before. It was over.
That also had us glued to our seats the next week as, one by one, the teams ranked ahead of LSU met their demise in upset after upset.
The devastation of those losses was only matched by the elation of LSU’s improbable and miraculous route to the BCS Championship Game.
Hell, in 2007, teams ranked No. 2 lost seven times. Each one of those losses was crushing for those fan bases and left other teams watching filled with hope and joy.
You don’t have to look back to 2007 to find a crushing loss for your favorite team, or a tear-sipping loss by your most hated team.
Every year, great teams are devastated by a loss. College football should never get a mulligan. Every loss should sting and dramatically hurt your playoff odds.
College football has always been a sport where a great team must be great all season in order to be named champion. There is no 9-7 New York Giants team ripping off a few good wins and us pretending they were the best team that year.
The regular season identifies the great teams, and a limited playoff lets them settle it on the field.
But a 24-team playoff kills all of that.
There are not 24 great teams every season - not even close.
A 24-team playoff means 8-4 teams get in regularly, and 9-3 in a Power Four conference practically guarantees you a spot.
Are you really going to be on the edge of your seat watching 8-3 Iowa and 8-3 Nebraska duke it out for a chance to get blown out in the first round?
No. You’ll watch and say, “Oh, that’s neat Iowa got in, but neither team is really that great.”
I’ll conclude with this - when you talk to the people, the fans of the sport overwhelmingly oppose this concept.
With all respect to the AFCA, that is a group of coaches. These are men whose job security is predicated on making the playoff and who, frankly, have personal gain in lowering the bar.
This narrative is being heavily pushed by media conglomerates, coaches and executives - all fueled by the personal gain an expanded playoff would bring to their own pocketbooks.
As someone who loves the beautiful chaos that is college football, I plead to the powers in charge - listen to the people who put you where you are.
