Mike Leach wants College Football Playoff expanded to 16-64 teams

Washington State head coach Mike Leach has never been one to bite his tongue as one of the more outspoken coaches in college football over the last decade-plus, but what the Cougars coach had to say on 104.5 ESPN Radio in Baton Rouge about the new college football playoff may take the cake as the most outlandish.

“In my opinion, the best-case scenario is they’ll expand the playoff. I think the playoff needs to be expanded to between somewhere between 16 and 64, so you really get teams playing each other, and everybody needs to be guaranteed 12 games. However the playoff unfolds and expands, right now, they’re sticking their toe in the water to see how they like it. I think they’re going to like it a lot. I do expect it to be a bigger playoff format. It needs to be big enough that the politicians and committees and someone not informed about a team doesn’t cause them to be out of it. They need enough teams to mitigate that.

Four teams will comprise the playoff and almost immediately after that number was announced there were critics who wanted an expanded field. Go figure that the first time a playoff is introduced to college football fans that it wouldn’t be good enough.

Leach also touched on the ongoing debate over how many conference games each league should play. The Pac-12 plays nine games but the SEC and ACC recently voted to keep their league at eight conference games to the consternation of a few coaches in the Pac-12.

“As they figure out how that’s going to be absorbed, this business of how many conference games, I don’t care if there’s eight or nine, but it’s got to be the same. It’s got to be the same number for all participants eligible for the playoff.”