Should The College Football Playoff Expand?
Ever since the establishment of the College Football Playoff there has been rumors of the committee expanding from the current four teams to eight, ten, twelve, or even more! After last weekend’s playoff games we saw two very lopsided games. Georgia took care of Michigan and Alabama kept Cincinnati under wraps. Would expanding the playoffs have more competitive games? Would lower ranked teams actually make noise?
I know we are talking about football but most folks lean toward the March Madness basketball tournament being the most exciting tournament in all of sports. Everyone loves seeing which Cinderella team is going to make a run and see what teams get upset by these teams! They have expanded that tournament from the original 64 teams to have some play in games and most think this has given even more excitement. So would this type of expansion make the football playoff more exciting? Now I am not suggesting that the current system expand to the size of the basketball tournament but would say an 8 team field add excitement and ultimately more eyes on the tournament?
I have an odd view on this. I am a proponent of expanding the field to eight teams. This would ultimately add one additional round. This would add more eyes to the initial round because there would be more teams involved so that goes without saying so that would be a plus for tv ratings and involving additional fan bases. But the part of me that does not want expansion is that I have a very good feeling that the top two teams will come out of the initial games to play for the championship. Those top two teams would be head and shoulders above those lower two seeded teams. This is evident even with the four team field. Historically the top two seeds tend to dominate in the early round of the playoff. Yes I know there is always an exception to every rule or trend but this trend usually holds true.
So I am conflicted. Would expansion increase competition? I don’t believe so. Because of the physical activity of football as compared to basketball I think better athletes would ultimately win out. Would it increase viewership? I think that would be a slam dunk. But what it all comes down to is the agenda of the committee. Money or competition. I think we all know where that decision comes down to…the ole mighty dollar!