If you enjoyed the 12-team, expanded College Football Playoff format, I hope you enjoyed the best the CFP format will ever be. Not that this past year’s format was the best one, but it’s only getting worse from here.
The SEC and the Big Ten are doing their best to monopolize the College Football Playoff format as best as they can. Which means the smaller schools are set up to get screwed over. They already had the short end of the stick.
And before you say Boise State got in and got a first-round bye, they were the only one to get in despite several teams making the argument to get in. Furthermore, last year’s playoff was proof of just how annoyed the big conferences were that Boise State got in with the latest format.
I agree there needs to be a change in the format but expanding to 14 teams with 13 automatic bids is just ridiculous. It essentially defeats the purpose of having a playoff.
The potential new CFP format isn’t just bad for the small schools, but also integrity too
We’re straying further and further away from a credible playoff format with each new potential proposal. I hate the idea of the SEC and Big Ten controlling eight of the 14 playoff spots. That defeats the purpose of a playoff.
The goal of the College Football Playoff should be about determining the best team in college football for that season. I’m not saying the field should be littered with Conference-USA teams or Mid-American Conference teams. But it shouldn’t be an invitation for mediocre Big Ten teams either.
What makes the NCAA Tournament in basketball such a cherished tradition is that any given year, any team could win. Sometimes a team gets in that may not get in for another 20 years. Other times you have the blue bloods getting stunned in the first round.
It all comes together for an action-packed three weekends. The CFP is essentially shoving the Big Ten and SEC representatives down our throat and that will get old fast. On top of that to make things worse, TV ratings might be a determining factor in CFP admittance.
According to an ESPN story, another method in determining which teams get in each year would be based on their play throughout the season.
“One possibility, which could be viewed as a compromise, is having conferences earn automatic bids through their play each season,” the ESPN story said. “A model in which each Power 4 league can earn guaranteed spots through a combination of its teams' overall records -- and maybe even TV ratings, according to a source -- could be presented. The highest-ranked conferences would earn the most automatic bids.”
This is getting out of hand, but also exactly the way things are supposed to go right? The haves get to have everything handed to them while the have-nots get left behind and never feel invited to the big kids table.
We’re overthinking this new CFP format. All these proposals or even ideas are not progressing the CFP. They’re just watering it down with the teams that make the most money. Surely that’s always going to be the driving factor, but there can be a better to go about it.
We begged for years to expand the CFP field from four teams and it took a decade for that change. We’re already teasing a new format for the new CFP before it has even had a chance to fail.