College Football is own worst enemy as playoff expansion fails

Playoff expansion makes perfect sense, so of course, college football can’t have it in the latest example of a sport that can’t get out of its own way. 

I love college football. It’s the greatest sport in the world. It’s why I spend most of my Saturdays watching it and many of my days writing about it.

College football is unique. Its history, its passion and everything that goes along with it make the game special. But for decades, it’s been plagued by narrow-minded thinking that continues.

After there was talk of expanding the college football playoff to 12, it was officially voted against 8-3 which means the current format will exist for the next four years.

It will give college football a chance to finalize expansion by 2026 but not adopting the 12-team format proposed prior to the 2021 season is an absolute failure and according to Nichole Auerbach of The Athletic, it was the Big Ten, Pac-12, and ACC that voted against it.

The commissioners of these conferences made public statements about wanting expansion which makes their votes confusing. It really makes zero sense when you think about it.

The current proposal would be good for each of these leagues and the truth is, it would be good for every conference in college football. The six highest-ranked conference champions would receive bids along with the six highest-ranked at-large teams.

What is wrong with that?

I’ll tell you: nothing.

With Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC, it’s possible that five or six of those 12 teams could be from that league but oh well, that’s life. We don’t need a limit on conference participation. And we don’t need to guarantee any particular league a bid.

This means if the ACC or Big Ten has a down year, while the Mountain West or American have excellent teams, the inferior teams won’t have a guaranteed berth based on name value alone.

It wasn’t perfect and I can see the complaints about top-4 seeds not getting to play at home, while seeds 5-8 would get to.

Quarterfinal games could be played at home sites. That would be my preference and based on the final College Football Playoff rankings from 2021, every team in the top 12 would have made it.

The conference champions would have been: Bama, Michigan, Cincy, Baylor, Utah, and Pittsburgh, with at least berths going to Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, and Michigan State.

So that’s three teams from the SEC and Big Ten, two from the Big 12, one from the American, one from the ACC, one Independent, and one from the Pac-12.

So can anyone explain why the ACC, Big Ten, or Pac-12 would be against this agreement? Or why any conference would? It makes zero sense.

It also made zero sense to have a postseason in which the top two teams couldn’t meet on the field but that was how college football worked for decades. Then came the BCS. People drug their feet to expand the playoff to four teams.

But the reaction? It was like why didn’t this happen sooner. The story will be the same when it’s expanded to 12 and eventually, beyond that.

Why didn’t this happen sooner???

Welcome to college football, a sport that just can’t get out of its own way.