What issues could cause us to see expansion from 4 to 8 team play-off? Here are some reasons it most likely happen.
Every couple of weeks, it seems as if we have to have a talk about the College Football Playoff and whether it will expand to eight teams or not. That storyline was brought to the forefront again this week, as outgoing Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany made some interesting remarks.
So, what did Delany say? And, will the Playoff actually expand if the situations he named happen? Let's dive into this story:
Every couple of weeks, it seems as if we have to have a talk about the College Football Playoff and whether it will expand to eight teams or not. That storyline was brought to the forefront again this week, as outgoing Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany made some interesting remarks.
So, what did Delany say? And, will the Playoff actually expand if the situations he named happen? Let's dive into this story:
- Delany is retiring on Jan. 1, but he's going out swinging. This week, he said that only two conferences being left out of the Playoff could spur change. "The thing that would probably trip it is if the committee left out a champion from the ACC or SEC," Delany said. "That would be an immediate catapult forward, as it was when Auburn was left out." That Auburn snub Delany referred to came when the undefeated Tigers were left out of the 2004 BCS title game in favor of fellow undefeated squads USC and Oklahoma.
- The Playoff didn't start until 2012, though -- eight years later. However, many do credit that Auburn snub for setting the wheels in motion for Playoff expansion, including AL.com columnist Kevin Scarbinsky, who wrote a story back in 2012 about how Auburn being left out of the title game impacted the way things work now.
- Delany does think the Playoff is an improvement over the BCS, though. In the same ESPN article referenced above, Delany said when a major conference is left out of the Playoff, it really hurts that conference's brand. "You don't know what it means to your brand and to your recruiting prospects and so on, what it means to be left out," Delany said. "The irony to me is you've doubled the access points from two to four, but you've at least doubled the damage and the pain associated with being left out."
- There are other factors at play in the expansion debate, too. ESPN's Mike Greenberg pointed to players sitting out of bowl games as another reason the Playoff might expand. In this video, Greeny and Emmanuel Acho say that if games like the Sugar Bowl don't matter to Georgia, which has players like OL Andrew Thomas sitting out, then there's something wrong with the bowl system. Oh, and Sugar Bowl tickets are going for as cheap as $8. Add that up and a switch to an eight-team Playoff might make sense for those in charge of those bigger bowl games.