Should the College Football Playoff expand beyond four teams to prevent another SEC Championship Game and keeping undefeated teams like UCF out?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but there’s a bit of controversy surrounding this year’s National Championship Game. Make no mistake, the two teams playing for it all tonight, Alabama and Georgia, are the two best teams in the country and have proven that on the field and in their College Football Playoff semifinal games. But that’s just not good enough for many because they don’t like that it’ll be a matchup of two SEC teams.
My short answer to the critics: Deal with it.
It’s the two best two teams in the country. If they just so happen to be from the same conference then so be it.
It goes beyond this though as many don’t think Alabama was deserving of the fourth spot in the field because they didn’t win their conference. They didn’t even win their own division. Many contend Ohio State was unfairly left out of the field after they won the Big Ten, widely considered the best conference this year, and had more quality wins than Alabama.
Moreover, the argument for an expanded College Football Playoff field takes us to the Sunshine State where UCF finished their season undefeated after a win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl. Auburn beat for championship game participants so now UCF fans, athletic directors and even the governor of Florida have declared UCF the national champions.
They’re national champions as much as I won the Heisman this year.
Nevertheless, the conversation for an expanded playoff to include teams like UCF that run the table from a Group of Five and so teams like Ohio State aren’t left out persists among fans.
I have bad news for them. The College Football Playoff isn’t expanding. At the very earliest, it’s not expanding until the current TV contract expires, at which point the TV people may decide they want additional games to make them feel better about the cash they’re paying for the broadcast rights. But you won’t hear the expansion talk coming from conference commissioners who are pleased with the status quo.
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Every few years there may be a scenario where a team like UCF is left out or a situation where an Alabama gets in over an Ohio State, but why are so many so focused on changing the very fabric of the sport?
There isn’t going to be an NFL style playoff format. There just isn’t. And part of the charm about college football is that it’s not the NFL. Why are we so focused on the last game of the season and not the path to get there?
That’s where the real change should take place, not with a bigger playoff field.