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College Football Playoff: It’s not time for expansion

By Justin Dottavio

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 29: Clelin Ferrell #99 and Christian Wilkins #42 of the Clemson Tigers react after a play in the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the College Football Playoff Semifinal Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium on December 29, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 29: Clelin Ferrell #99 and Christian Wilkins #42 of the Clemson Tigers react after a play in the first half against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the College Football Playoff Semifinal Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium on December 29, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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The 2018 semifinals have proven that a four-team playoff is plenty of enough. Here are three reasons the College Football Playoff should not be expanded.

The en vogue saying in 2018 is to expand the playoff. Mike Leach, Washington State’s eccentric head football coach, wants to expand to a minimum of 16 teams. SB Nation’s Bill Connelly has discussed a “pod” system and other different ways to expand without losing quality product.

Many point to issues in the current conference championship system where the Northwestern Wildcats were just fodder for a beatdown from THE Ohio State University. Yet, when push comes to shove, simple research shows that not only are most of the College Football Playoff Semifinal games bad, but the BCS was usually right in picking their matchup, too.

If the BCS was usually right and the semifinal games have produced a number of busts, maybe the system isn’t broken after all. Consider this, once the expansion is moved to eight teams, can it ever go back?

A lot would have to happen to make the season shorter than 16 or 17 games for the teams that qualify for the title. Maybe that would be the elimination of the 12th game that the FBS teams all play in this era. Maybe that would be eliminating the conference championship games, which in my mind, are basically part of the postseason model anyway.

Here are three reasons the College Football Playoff should not be expanded past four teams:

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