The College Football Playoff. Every college football fan’s idea of the perfect way to crown the national championship; not. Plenty of college football fans like myself are opposed to the playoff format. Is it even a playoff? It really is just a semi-final. Even the name sucks. It’s also the same every year. It’s always Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Clemson. Every so often there might be a new team thrown into the mix, but since the start of the playoffs in the 2014-15 season at least two of the four teams above have been in the playoffs. Let’s count how many teams on the West Coast have been in the playoffs since 2017; none. I love the variety. Way to get all of America on the playoff train. 

When you limit the number of playoff teams to four, you limit the amount of fanbases who are interested. Therefore losing out on viewership and money. It isn’t fair on the schools as well. If you’re a smaller school like UCF, Cincinnati or BYU, you have little to no hope in making the playoffs even if you go undefeated in the regular season just like Cincinnati in 2020 and UCF in 2018. These smaller schools who don’t get opportunities to play bigger schools on a regular basis are punished for being little. While they may go undefeated, one loss and even two loss teams like Alabama and Ohio State make the playoffs instead of them.
While the current format takes a toll on smaller schools, it also affects larger schools as well. With only four teams, your margin for error is very small. One loss and your chances slim. Two losses and you have no chance. Three losses and you might as well buy a coffin. Let’s rewind back to the year 2016. A year where Penn State lost two games early in the season although they then went on a tear, winning nine in a row including a win hosting, then number two in the nation, Ohio State and beating, then number five in the nation, Wisconsin in the BIG10 Championship. It goes without saying, that is very impressive. So my question is: How did we not make the playoffs? Did I mention that Ohio State made the playoffs? Even though Penn State beat Ohio State. They also won the BIG10. Which Ohio State didn’t. Yes, Ohio State did have an impressive season. Playoff caliber football? Yes. However Penn State did just as well if not better.

That is why the playoff needs to be expanded. Some years there are a lot of good teams and they all deserve to make the playoffs. Expand the playoffs to 12. It’s pretty simple. The top four teams in the country get a bye for the first round and then teams 5-12 battle it out with the games played on the higher seed’s home field. After that, the winners play the teams with byes on a neutral sight and so on. So simple and so much more money could be made. Hopefully soon the format will change so that more teams can get involved. Until then, let’s try to enjoy the playoffs even though deep down we know it will be the same teams we saw last year