College Football Playoff: 5 Bold predictions for National Championship Game

5. The College Football Playoff field will go to eight teams within five years

As much as college football loves to rest on its laurels and tout its history, the one constant in the sport over time is change. Three decades ago, more than a quarter of the teams at the I-A level weren’t even affiliated with a conference. Two decades ago, the Rose Bowl and its partner conferences were only just coming around to the idea of the Bowl Championship Series.

There was a long battle against the College Football Playoff in the decade before its arrival on the scene in 2014-2015. A four-team bracket ultimately did not cheapen the regular season. Despite plenty of fair arguments against Ohio State in 2016 and this 2017 Alabama team, not even including non-conference champions has tarnished the inevitable excitement of every college football season.

What seasons like this can do, however, is begin the pivot that starts momentum building toward expanding the College Football Playoff field. The shift from the BCS to the Playoff was propelled by the 2011-2012 BCS National Championship, which featured Alabama against LSU. That time the Tide took down their division rival 21-0 for the crystal pigskin, despite losing head-to-head against the Tigers during the regular season.

No matter what happens, this game will be an accelerator for growth.

This year’s circumstances are certainly different. Georgia and Alabama didn’t get the chance to play during the regular season, after Auburn prevented the Tide from reaching Alabama for the SEC championship. They are not regular rivals, playing only sporadically in interdivisional play. The hoopla around the College Football Playoff will swell far more if Alabama wins the title on Monday, but even if the Bulldogs prevail as four-point underdogs there will still be a growing rumble.

For the second straight season, two Power Five conference champs were shut out of the field. UCF, the top Group of Five team and the only undefeated team standing at the end of the 2017 season, was also never given serious consideration for a run at the title. In a down year for the SEC, the two teams at the top of the FBS heap come from the league that has dominated college football for much of the past quarter-century.

That will get the wheels spinning even faster toward expanding the College Football Playoff to eight teams. With James Madison and North Dakota State about to play their 15th game apiece for the FCS national championship on Saturday, player safety is hardly the primary concern when it comes to college football at any level. That is especially true at the highest ranks of the sport.

Next: Alabama’s Playoff pick will accelerate move to 8-team playoff

The monetary value of ensuring each Power Five conference a spot in the College Football Playoff will outweigh any talk of health issues. After all, only two teams would be asked to play at most 16 games. By the 2022-2023 season, we will be talking about which team will emerge from a field of eight rather than just four.