By Ryan Bologna
College football has seen radical changes over the last couple of years. NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment and coaching changes have shaken the landscape. It seems we will add to that list with expansion to the College Football Playoff. The CFP board has decided on a 12-team playoff and is encouraging commissioners to implement it as soon as 2024. The exact format still needs to be ironed out, but expansion at this point is inevitable.
This will have obvious implications for conference realignment. We already know that the Big Ten and SEC will try to create super conferences to try to dominate the new playoff. But there have already been some ideas thrown out there that could prevent this from becoming a Big Ten and SEC exclusive tournament.
This hypothetical would be music to the ears for the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and group of five conferences. This probably wouldn’t prevent the Big Ten and SEC from dominating the later rounds of the playoff, but it would give exposure to each of the power five conferences along with one of the group of five conferences each year.
That format would also likely create more excitement for conference championship games every year. Do you think Alabama fans care about the 2021 SEC championship win over Georgia knowing that they lost to the same school in the National Championship anyway?
This would create more hope for schools that are not at the top of the rankings as well. A Big Ten West team who would have no playoff hopes in the current format could win its way into the playoff by pulling an upset against a school like Ohio State. It would be very similar to a college basketball team getting an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament by winning the conference tournament.
Like it is in college basketball, it would cause huge debates about whether it would be fair for those teams to be involved. Regardless, every conference championship game would be much more important than ever before.
One more aspect of this format is deciding where the games will be played. It is way too early to tell that, but the first thought for many college football fans is that there is potential for playoff games to be held on campus. Neutral sites like the Rose Bowl are great, but it would be interesting to see what the atmosphere would be like for a playoff game on a college campus.
There is a lot of uncertainty regarding the landscape of college sports, but there is no longer any question about whether a 12-team format will be implemented.
Photo Credit: Lost_in_the_Midwest
