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College Football Playoff: Expansion goal is 16, not 8

By John McCarty

TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 09: Deshaun Watson #4 of the Clemson Tigers celebrates with the trophy after defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game 35-31 at Raymond James Stadium on January 9, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 09: Deshaun Watson #4 of the Clemson Tigers celebrates with the trophy after defeating the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game 35-31 at Raymond James Stadium on January 9, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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If and when the NCAA expands the College Football Playoff, the target is 16 teams, not eight teams. The bigger field helps everyone.

There is always, and will always, be an outcry for a larger tournament field in college football.

Is it because we see good, quality football teams every year playing in bowl games no one really cares about anymore? Or simply because the NCAA Tournament in basketball has so many teams, we don’t understand why the football version can’t be larger?

Who knows? What I do know is this: If the College Football Playoff is expanded, the goal isn’t to increase from four to eight teams, it’s to go to 16. Here’s why.

First off, by going to 16, you can now include every conference winner. Relevance comes to smaller conference championship games in the same manner we see in basketball.

If you make the game, you have a chance. Boise State gets in by winning the Mountain West, as would FAU winning Conference USA or Appalachian State winning the Sun Belt. Miami (OH) is in the field because they won the MAC.

A tournament of 16 gives every conference championship winner a spot in the field that takes up ten of the spots, leaving six for at large bids and/or Notre Dame.

Secondly, by having a larger field, you would go through at least the first round of the tournament playing games on the home field of the higher seeded team.

Local games would likely draw larger crowds due to proximity as well as create atmosphere. Fans are not faced with the issues of travel (for the most part) if the game is being played an hour or two drive from their home as opposed to a two hour flight from the nearby airport.

Third, and perhaps this is wishful thinking, the games could include more top talent. Currently, if teams are not in the playoff, much of the top draft eligible talent is sitting out the game to avoid injury.

The Sugar Bowl this year will see Baylor take on what’s left of the Georgia Bulldogs after seemingly half their roster will take the game off. If a team is in the playoff, would players be more likely to participate in those games?

So, what would a tournament field for 2019 look like? Lets take a quick stab.

Automatic qualifiers:

  • American: Memphis
  • ACC: Clemson
  • Big 12: Oklahoma
  • Big Ten: Ohio State
  • C-USA: Florida Atlantic
  • MAC: Miami (OH)
  • Mountain West: Boise State
  • SEC: LSU
  • Sun Belt Appalachian State
  • PAC 12: Oregon

What might the at large bids look like?

  • Georgia
  • Baylor
  • Wisconsin
  • Utah
  • Florida
  • Penn State

Basically what has happened is the teams that played for the conference championship and lost, but had a really good season are rewarded with a spot. Virginia isn’t in the field because their regular season wasn’t good enough.

While I selected Florida and Penn State basically because they were ranked higher, one has to wonder if a team such as Alabama would have received a spot in the field due to name recognition.

Here’s how my seeding may look

  1. LSU
  2. Ohio State
  3. Clemson
  4. Oklahoma
  5. Oregon
  6. Georgia
  7. Baylor
  8. Wisconsin
  9. Florida
  10. Utah
  11. Penn State
  12. Boise State
  13. Memphis
  14. Appalachian State
  15. Miami (OH)
  16. FAU

So with that in mind, here’s an attempt to guess what the original field may have looked like.

(1) LSU

(16) FAU

———–

(8) Wisconsin

(9) Florida

———–

(5) Oregon

(12) Boise State

———–

(4) Oklahoma

(13) Memphis

———–

(6) Georgia

(12) Penn State

———–

(3) Clemson

(11) Appalachian State

———–

(7) Baylor

(10) Utah

———–

(2) Ohio State

(10) Miami (OH)

I do my best to allow for geographical match-ups, but there are some quality games and it sets up future games. These could be fun games, and with the potentially large TV contract that would come from such an event, schools that make the tournament would see a nice payout to go into their programs.

This would certainly be fun, and yes, the first and perhaps the second round of games would be played on the campus of the higher rated school. After that, the last two rounds could be played at bowl game venues in the same manner the current playoff structure is set up.

What do you think of this concept?

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