Should the College Football Playoff expand for 2020?

With many conferences moving to an in-conference schedule for 2020, eyes are now on the College Football Playoff. How will the playoff adjust this season?

The Power Five in the NCAA have begun the process of implementing a conference-only schedules for 2020. The Big Ten was the first to do so announcing on July 9 that all non-conference games will be cancelled. The Pac-12 followed suit the next day announcing the same for their 2020 slate. One by one, the dominos started to fall to lead to the rest of the Power Five doing their own variation of an in-conference schedule.

This seems like the safest way to put out college football in 2020. Every major league in America has thus far had to make concessions on how their season will be played, college football was no exception. Now that the dust is settled and there is a path to finishing a season, it is time to start wondering what a College Football Playoff looks like in 2020.

This year is a completely different animal which brings a unique chance to try out ideas in sports that would not be previously considered. Major League Baseball has 16 teams in the playoffs for the first time in their history. The NBA and NHL have worked with play-in tournaments to finalize their playoff seeding.

This is the opportunity for college football to take a hard look at what expanding the playoff would do for the sport.

The debate of expanding the playoff has always been a topic of discussion since the implementation of the system in 2014. Some are on the side that the playoff system is just right as it is. Others think there needs to be more teams welcomed.

Both sides have valid points and criticisms but I fall on the side of keeping the system as it is. Just three of the 12 semifinal games have been decided by seven points or less. Six of those 12 games have been won by 20-plus points. Keeping a limited playoff structure adds more meaning to the playoff games, and makes every regular season game count.

On the flip side, just 11 teams have appeared in a playoff since 2014. Alabama and Clemson have appeared in 5-of-6 playoff fields, Oklahoma has been in four, including three straight. Shannon Sharpe loves to call the system “The Alabama invitational also known as the College Football Playoff.”

Having the same teams every year could get a bit stagnant, and can cause fans to sour.

So what do we do with this unpredictable, crazy season in regards to the College Football Playoff? I came up with a concept of how an expanded Playoff system could look in 2020.

CFB Playoff concept for 2020

• Teams are ranked by the committee as they would be any year.
• Every Power Five conference gets a chance to send two teams to the playoff (conference champ of each and remaining highest-ranked team).
• Group of Five sends two highest-ranked teams.
• Top four teams in the nation get a bye.
• After each round, highest remaining seeds play the lowest remaining seeds.

For example, this is how this format would look if applied to the 2019 season. We could have potentially got games like Oklahoma vs. Georgia, Clemson vs. Oregon and LSU vs. Wisconsin. Those games would be great any year, but add a playoff atmosphere and that’s must see television.

This idea would test out if an expanded playoff system would be effective or not going forward. It would give a fair shot for all major conferences to be involved in playoff football. This gives the teams that have lost out on big time non conference games (Ohio State/Oregon, Alabama/USC, Texas/LSU) a better chance at making the playoffs without going undefeated.

Being in a season that only allows games to play in-conference makes it harder to distinguish who truly is the best of the best. Having just four playoff teams in 2020, would mean resumes have to be nearly perfect to get in. With this idea, there is still an importance to finishing in the top four, as those teams still have an incentive at a bye for the first round.

Giving the Group of Five conferences a legitimate chance at the playoff for once would be a nice change of pace from the past. There’s never usually a Group of Five team seriously considered for a playoff spot, with the exception of UCF in 2018. Leaving these teams to play conference-only games would decimate any small chance they had to begin with.

I won’t pretend like this is a perfect theory or is a very easy decision to make within the span of a month. Regulating 12 teams from different areas of the country for a 3-4 week period without a bubble type procedure would be extremely difficult. Adding more teams to the playoff may sound like more of a nightmare than a concept to athletic directors and bowl officials who would be involved with coordinating this idea.

Before I brought up the blowouts in the four-team system, of course there is a real chance there is more of those that offset the excitement of more playoff games.

At the end of the day, the playoff needs to adjust for this season in a way that is safe, fair and exciting. The challenge of fulfilling all three of those is an uphill battle. The good thing about establishing a playoff committee, is that it brings in a group of experienced and educated college football lifers. The committee has done a very good job building the foundation of this playoff. Will they make a big step and shake the foundation of college football for 2020?

What do you think? Should the playoff be expanded for 2020 and potentially beyond? Let me know what you think in the comments and on Twitter @James_Costanz..