SMQ: What if college football had its own March Madness?

With March Madness on the horizon, SMQ has playoffs on the mind. This week we ponder how a bigger playoff might impact college football.

As conference championships wrap up in college basketball, the sport prepares for March Madness. Sixty-eight teams will make the NCAA tournament field in men’s basketball. Twenty percent of the Division I field will get a fair shot at the national title. That includes the champions of all 32 Division I conferences.

Compared to college football, the NCAA tournament is an egalitarian landscape of opportunity. Even after the shift to the College Football Playoff, controversy still lurks around every corner. With too few spots to guarantee a chance to every Power Five conference champion, the current playoff structure generates plenty of controversy but little of substance.

Controversy can certainly sell. But while the selection process for the New Year’s Six offers a weekend of hot takes, March Madness provides a solid month of actual competition leading up to a championship game. There is still plenty of controversy about teams making the cut and teams left out in the cold.

In the past few decades, college football has slowly paced itself onto a collision course with its own unique brand of March Madness. How would a longer playoff structure irrevocably alter the landscape of college football? Is there anything besides tradition holding back growth?

This week, Sunday Morning Quarterback dives into the numbers to show why injecting college football with a little March Madness makes sense from any angle.