Although not yet sure when It will happen, the college football playoff period will soon extend from four teams to 12. Now, the expansion is officially done just a recommendation From a handful of powerful officials across college football. However, these types of recommendations aren’t made public if the people behind them aren’t sure they’ll have the support to make them stick. And in this case, these guys are some of the most important movers and shakers in college athletics.
The extension of the extension will certainly be good for the finances of the schools that play in the football division. Whether it will be beneficial for the sport as a whole, including its players, fans and their experiences with college football, is less clear. One thing is for sure: The College Football Playoff expansion will have a huge impact on how the league operates. Here, I’ve outlined some of the pros and cons of 12 postseason teams.
Pro: The playoff will be more accessible to teams in the Group of Five conferences.
The biggest failure of the four-team setup that started in 2014 is that half of FBS is effectively banned from playoffs. The field for the four teams is technically open to teams outside the Power 5 confederations (SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12), but no team from the so-called “Group of 5” leagues (that is, the American Athletic, Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt, and Mid-American) with dance.
In 2020, Coastal Carolina and Cincinnati were undefeated, and they didn’t get much sniff from the playoff selection panel—neither team has reached above sixth place in any week’s standings. This was equal to the course. Since 2016, almost every year has seen a 5-team team lose undefeated.
The 12-team format will ensure that there is at least one G5 team each year. The six top-ranked conference tournaments are guaranteed to be shown, and because there are only five energy conferences, the others will get at least one place. In some years, they may get two. In general, the G5 conferences are likely to be Biggest Winners in this new system.
Con: Players are still not getting paid, and they will now be required to put their bodies to the test for more games.
The original and greatest sin of college football remains in effect: work does not get paid. Universities can offer athletes all the scholarships, meals, lessons, and housing they want. It all falls short considering that the playoff is worth Hundreds of millions of dollars annually In TV money alone – and it will certainly be of more value once the playing field triples in size, taking the playoffs from three televised matches to 11. (The top four seeded players get a solution in the second round.)
Currently, a typical playoff finalist plays 15 games per season. In a 12-team system, the number is likely 16 and can go up to 17 if the team that reaches the final does not get the first leg of the first round. One of the engineers of the new qualifiers didn’t have the most encouraging answer when asked about the impact of the new system on the health of the athletes.
“The farewell works so that any of those teams can play one game,” said Jacques Swarbrick, sporting director of Notre Dame. Tell 247 Sports. “The way to get to 17 in this form isn’t impossible, but there was a lot of stuff involved to make that highly improbable.”
This is not a great plan!
Pro: We’ll see college football post-season games on campus.
The opening round of the 12-team qualifiers, with the fifth through twelfth seed playing singles playoffs to move on to face the four teams that get the farewell, will be played in the teams’ respective courts. This is a welcome change.
At FBS, the entire post-season has historically been staged in bowl games at neutral locations. Often these are NFL places that college teams can’t fill, or destroy old stadiums in places out of the way. In the 12-team qualifiers, the opening matches will take place in bustling stadiums on campus where the teams will have students in attendance. In other words, post-season college football will look like actual college football for the first time ever on FBS. (The lower levels of exercise He’s always had playoffs on campus.)
It’s not perfect: Subsequent rounds of qualifiers will take place at tournament locations. But it is a step forward.
Con: More teams will be motivated to view the playoffs as their main goal.
A lot of people in college football don’t like playoffs, because they think they take a lot of focus. These people are right, at least in part. Many fans, pundits and even coaches and administrators often measure success by whether or not their team makes it to the playoffs. Given that 78 percent of playoff bids since 2014 have gone to the same five teams, that’s not a great way to set expectations.
Nobody needs a single-minded focus on the play-off. There are plenty of ways individual schools (and their fans) can turn their attention to purposeful and achievable goals. However, thinking about the playoff can be fun if You know how to do it right. It’s just that a lot of college football teams don’t and will likely keep chasing the supplement berth which is now more achievable but still hard to achieve.
Pro: More regular season games will be more important.
With a four-team playoff system, usually only about five or seven teams have a serious chance of making it happen by the time the final two weeks of the season rolls around. That number should nearly triple, and it’s easy to see how it can have a pleasurable effect downstream.
In four-team format, Team 18 isn’t even close to playoff conversation as Thanksgiving approaches. In 12-team format, this team can still slip into the playoff, leaving the field open for the weakest prospect of a Cinderella tournament. Such a magical run is highly unlikely, but great sporting moments are born out of a glimmer of hope.
Cons: Alabama will still make the playoff even when they lose several games.
One of the thrills of the four-team system is that a strong team like Crimson Tide can be eliminated as soon as they lose a second match. For example, in 2019, Bama lost to Auburn in Iron Bowl, which kept the tide out of the top four (and thus out of the playoffs) for the only time in the event’s history.
Alabama was playing for its interlude, making the Iron Bowl an exciting high-stakes game. In a 12-team system, Bama would have had success no matter the outcome, and that would have taken some punches away from the game. This system will give each Goliath a greater margin for error, making it more difficult to defeat.
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