Apparently expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams is going to be the DEATH of college football, and I genuinely don’t understand how people are coming to that conclusion.
First, everybody keeps screaming that college football is all about money now. NOW? Are we serious? This sport has been chasing TV money for decades. You think conferences started stretching across the entire country because everybody wanted to make new friends?
Then there’s the argument that the regular season won’t matter anymore. HOW? The top eight teams get a bye, the next eight get home playoff games, and we’re going from four playoff games on college campuses to SIXTEEN. Nobody is going to intentionally lose games and risk giving that up.
And why are we so against giving more programs an opportunity? We complain about the same powerhouse schools dominating college football, but when there’s a chance for other programs to get some national exposure, suddenly we’re worried about protecting tradition.
These smaller programs are already fighting an uphill battle against schools with boosters who have unlimited money. More exposure, more opportunities to generate revenue, and an actual chance to compete for something meaningful sounds pretty damn good to me.
Does expanding the playoff fix everything? Obviously not. There are legitimate questions about how the spots are awarded and whether smaller conferences will get a fair shot.
But college football has about a hundred problems worth getting pissed off about.
Giving more teams an opportunity to compete for a national championship isn’t one of them.
