Could a 32-team College Football Playoff bracket work?

The playoff bracket’s execution

In the words of Anakin Skywalker, “this is where the fun begins.”

The act of filling out this hypothetical bracket will be done by using the final AP Top 25 Poll from the previous college football season, and setting the teams up against one another how March Madness does (highest-seeded team plays lowest-seeded, pair them all up to equal the same number until the two closest seeds meet in the middle).

With that in mind, the first-round matchups would be as follows:

• No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 32 UAB
• No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 31 TCU
• No. 3 Clemson vs. No. 30 Memphis
• No. 4 Texas A&M vs. No. 29 Oregon
• No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 28 Army
• No. 6 Oklahoma vs. No. 27 Tulsa
• No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 26 Appalachian State
• No. 8 Cincinnati vs. No. 25 Buffalo
• No. 9 Iowa State vs. No. 24 San Jose State
• No. 10 Northwestern vs. No. 23 Ball State
• No. 11 BYU vs. No. 22 Miami
• No. 12 Indiana vs. No. 21 USC
• No. 13 Florida vs. No. 20 Oklahoma State
• No. 14 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 19 Texas
• No. 15 Louisiana-Lafayette vs. No. 18 North Carolina
• No. 16 Iowa vs. No. 17 Liberty

As you can see, the adding of each pair of seedings equal 33 every time, with the second round pairs equaling 16, and so on (assuming that no upsets occur, which is less likely thanks to this system).

Upon listing the matchups, I actually noticed the unusually heavy presence of smaller schools in the rankings. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic derailed the seasons of multiple powers that are typically seen ranked (i.e. Wisconsin, Utah, etc.). But regardless of the strong little guy demographic, the tournament would still be eaten up by fans, especially considering that such an outcome only spikes the chances of a “Cinderella” run.

To summarize, a 32-team College Football Playoff bracket would increase the chances of postseason parity, turn a handful of pointless bowl meetings into interesting tournament matches, extend the season (but not by too much), rake in more viewership/profit, and give underdog universities the opportunity to win a title.

I honestly have no clue as to why such a concept would not be more encouraged, or why the call for playoff extension always ends at eight.