Why expanding College Football Playoff won’t buck player opt-out trend

With recent comments from ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit about players opting out of bowl games and the idealistic College Football Playoff expansion still on the back-burner, there seems to be no tangible ideas to keep the best players on the field competing instead of opting out.

Some are under the impression that an expanded playoff format to say, 12 teams, might do the trick. One such format with a proposed bracket for this year’s games was created by CBS Sports.

Their model gives a “bye” to the top four conference champions (Alabama, Michigan, Baylor, and Cincinnati) and paves the way for the other eight teams to compete in a first-round match-up.

Why a 12-team College Football Playoff won’t stave off opt-outs

If you think about the main issue at hand, it’s players not wanting to risk injury at the expense of their potential to compete in the NFL with the highest earning potential possible.

In this year’s hypothetical 12-team playoff format, guys like Pittsburg’s Kenny Pickett, Michigan State’s Kenneth Walker III, and Notre Dame’s Kyren Williams would be playing in the first round.

That means they would have to play and win an additional four games to win a national championship— that’s insane.

And for what? A national championship that means next to nothing for their earning potential in the NFL. There’s just not enough there for a player to risk his body for an additional four games for a trophy.

Not to mention the dramatic way in which a player’s stock could be impacted. What if a player is pegged as a first-round pick before the College Football Playoff and performs poorly? Maybe he gets knocked down to the third round and would lose millions of life-changing dollars.

It’s just not fair to ask a teenager/young adult to make that kind of choice. There is no clear-cut solution that would benefit the players, teams, and conferences just yet.

Would allowing players to declare for the draft of their freshman year change things? Would using bowl sponsorships to pay each player move the needle? How about allowing schools to purchase insurance policies in the event of an injury on a player?

There are several solutions to what’s happening in college football, but the institutions that directly benefit from the players competing should be the ones making concessions, not the players.