CFP Expansion

Happy February everybody, groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow meaning spring is on the way. Maybe not, but we can always hope.

Today I want to take a look into the College Football Playoff, and the move the committee made to expand the playoff format from four teams to 12. The expansion was announced last season and will officially be in place for the 2024 season.

To fully get into this topic, let's look at the birth of the CFP and the committee that resides over it. The College Football Playoff (CFP) was initiated in 2014, taking over the BCS system which used computers to calculate the two best teams in the nation, and placed them in a one-game, winner take all championship game.

The BCS worked fine, but many people pointed out that great teams who could have very seriously won a national championship were left out of the big game due to vague statistics that the computer used within its calculations. In a way, the computer worked a little too well, and a team that the human eye could tell deserved to be in the national championship didn't always make it.

College football's solution to this problem was a four-team playoff, ensuring that the best 4 teams all had an equal shot of winning a title. The format ran for ten years, and surprisingly, for the most part there was little controversy on which four teams deserved to make it. People feel the committee did a good job in their selection of teams.

This being said, some people felt that a true playoff system that we see in every other American sports league would be much better in college football. Sure, a four-team system is technically a playoff, but it doesn't have the feel of a true playoff system. So, after a few years of discussion, the CFP committee decided to expand to 12 teams.

People felt validated in this move following the 2023 CFP final decision from the committee. Florida state went 12-0 and won the ACC, but still was left out of the playoff, causing massive backlash. This issue further supported the new decision to go to 12 teams.

Let's break down some pros and cons of the expansion. First off, we'll have a true playoff system for the first time in college football history. The winning team will have had to run the gauntlet, proving that they are hands down the most deserving team of winning the title. That’s obviously a good thing that football fans can be excited about.

On the flip side, this creates even more games in an already long, grueling season for these young players. A current solution to this is getting rid of the early non-conference games that teams typically play. This opens up a can of worms that I could write a whole separate blog on, but we can just say that this creates issues.

Moving on to what I think is the coolest thing about the expansion, playoff games will be played on college campuses. Imagine the atmosphere of a win or go home college football playoff game on somebody's home field. This is amazing for fans and schools, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it will look like.

A question that must be asked, however, is will this new format make the regular season less meaningful? With the four-team playoff system, most teams selected went undefeated, having to win every single regular season game to make the playoff. In the four-team era, there has never been a two-loss team invited to the playoffs. With this new 12-team format, this inevitably will happen, meaning not every regular season game will be a must win.

And we must realize that even by expanding the playoff to 12 teams, what will people say about that 13th team that didn't get in? Will we have the same discussions and argue that they got hosed? Or will people say if you can't even get in as the 12th team, do you really deserve to be there? Whatever the case, its sports, so people will be able to argue on and on about whatever happens. That's the beauty of it.

We don't get the Super Bowl this weekend, but that doesn't mean we can't make some predictions. I'll take Mahomes and the Chiefs to grind out a win against a great 49ers team. Mahomes has been able to figure out everything thrown at him this year, and even on what was considered a "down" year for the Chiefs to start the season, they've found a way to make it back to the Super Bowl yet again. I'm looking forward to it.

That's it for this week. We'll check in Monday to take a deeper dive into the Chiefs 49ers matchup. Have a good one everybody.

John Stanley

Content Writer