College Football Playoff expansion may benefit juggernaut teams
By Bradley Edington ‘23
Nick Saban, University of Alabama’s head football coach - Courtesy of Flickr
The College Football Playoff organization has announced an expansion of the size of the post-season playoffs, from a four-team bracket to a 12-team bracket, in order to benefit smaller teams that don’t often make the playoffs. However, the expansion may do just the opposite.
This playoff expansion is the latest change in the post-season configuration. College football has been a staple of American culture and tradition from its origin in the late 1800s and, since its beginning, the champions of college football have been decided in many different fashions. Before the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game was instituted in 1998, the college football national champions were crowned based on their record and performance throughout their year by committees that sometimes chose multiple champions.
Establishing the BCS National Championship solved the problem of conflicting national champions while maintaining the individual bowl games which had popped up throughout the 20th century. Bowl games, which are individual post-season games played between teams deemed “bowl-eligible” by the NCAA, give less-dominant teams a chance to play an important game at the end of the year. In these games, teams can get validation for their hard work in the regular season. The BCS selected the two top teams from the year and pitted them against each other in the BCS National Championship game.
In 2014, the BCS National Championship was ditched for the College Football Playoffs (CFP). Unlike the BCS, the CFP does not rely on a complex computer program that used statistics from the year in order to determine the top two teams. Instead, the CFP uses a 13-member committee to select the top four teams in college football, who play in a mini-bracket. First-seed and fourth-seed, and second-seed and third-seed, play each other in a semi-final to determine who will play in the championship.
Since the CFP was established, the most successful team in all of college football has been Alabama. With the most national titles and playoff appearances of any other college team, the last decade has been notably successful for Alabama. Since Head Coach Nick Saban’s first year in 2007, the Crimson Tide has appeared at a total of nine National Championships and has won six titles.
Though the CFP gives an opportunity to more teams to qualify for the playoffs, it has also had a negative impact on bowl games. With the broadened playoffs, the significance of small bowl games had been diminished by the growing playoffs. As a result, players have begun skipping bowl games in order to prevent the risk of injury, which has had a detrimental effect on the allure of bowl games.
Saban commented on the effect of expanding the playoffs in 2018, saying “I think the more playoffs you have, the less significance bowl games have. And, I think, that those two things, eventually, are going to have a hard time co-existing.”
Last season, the College Football Playoff organization announced that the CFP would be expanded to a 12-team bracket in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The playoffs will incorporate the winners and runner-ups of college football's 6 biggest conferences which will continue to be selected by the committee. The four highest-ranking conference champions will be given a bye-round, while the other eight play in the first round. From there, the quarterfinals and semifinals will comprise the NCAA’s most important bowl games: the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Orange Bowl.
“It's been a long process, but we are pleased that more teams and more students will have the opportunity to compete for the national championship beginning in the 2024 season” described Bill Hancock, the executive director of the CFP, during the press conference which announced the expansion. “More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students, and student-athletes.” It should be noted that expanding the playoffs means more money; the extra games will result in about $450 million dollars in revenue between CFP and ESPN.
Though the playoff expansion was designed to benefit smaller teams, it may have the opposite result. As seen in the 2023 National Championship game, where George beat Texas Christan University in a resounding 65-7 win, it's extraordinarily rare that large teams– such as Alabama, Michigan, or Georgia– are upset by smaller teams, it is unlikely that the expansion will increase the likelihood of small teams winning the championship.
Instead, with the expanded playoffs and bowl games losing significance, the expansion may do just the opposite and ruin the gratification that smaller teams currently get.