It appears college football powers brokers are listening to the public. Or at least they are aware of the growing interest in expanding the Playoff, with several influential voices telling The Athletic it’s time to take a look at including more teams, and not wait until the 12-year contract with ESPN is up in 2026.
“It’s an appropriate thing to begin thinking about,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.
According to the story, a number of conversations have taken place about such a possibility in recent weeks and months. The impetus for this is the Playoff including many of the same teams every year. Notre Dame is the only new entrant this time. Alabama has reached the Playoff all five years and Clemson has missed it just once. Central Florida went undefeated each of the past two years and didn’t get a sniff. There is no room for a Cinderella in the Playoff, a gaping hole in the system that makes March Madness in college basketball so popular.
“Everyone has the same feeling; expansion is inevitable,” said Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, who served on the CFP’s selection committee from 2014-16. “When you can do it, and I think we need to serve more people. I think four was the right way to get started. In my opinion, we need to take a look of adding more teams into the Playoff, giving more opportunities. …
Central Florida beat Auburn in last season’s Peach Bowl.Getty Images“I don’t know whether we’re serving all of our people now, when you have some leagues — our league [the Big Ten] as an example. Two years in a row, we don’t have anyone represented. The Big 12’s been the same way. The Pac-12’s been the same way.”
The story notes that the 2020 season would be the midway point of the 12-year ESPN contract, and expanding to eight teams could make sense at that point, given that the cities would have hosted an equal amount of semifinal matchups.
“Twelve years is a good run if everything was working well,” West Virginia president Gordon Gee said. “But it’s always good to take a look at it. We now have five years’ worth of experience. There’s nothing wrong with hitting the button and saying, let’s take a look at what’s working and what’s not working, and we don’t need to wait for another six years to make sure that we live out a contract.”
College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said there haven’t been any discussions in the committee meetings about expansion, but acknowledged the need for some as time goes on.
That time, some believe, is now.
