-by Dylan Webster, host of The Home Stand
When the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) made the announcement that they would be changing to a playoff system in 2014, I was ecstatic. Major college football finally realized that you can’t determine who deserves a shot at a national championship by using a computer. It needs to be won on the field, against the best competition in the country. The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) has shown how effective it can work every year. Unfortunately, the playoff system that was chosen by the FBS, has been garbage.
The whole playoff system is massively flawed. The first issue, the number of teams. Four teams does not a playoff make. It’s absurd that not only do you not allow a member from every Power 5 conference into the playoff, but then expect smaller schools from mid-level conferences to compete against teams like Alabama and Clemson in terms of schedule. The NCAA is actively excluding teams from a championship format and that is simply unacceptable. This is a problem that only exists within the FBS. The FCS playoff system has 24 teams in it. Division 2 has 28. Division 3 has 32. Even the NFL just expanded their playoff field to 7 teams from each conference, making 14 total. So how does the NCAA justify only four teams, unless they’re trying to create the smallest chance of an outside school taking a spot away from one of their cash cows?
There’s also both the lack of criteria for how a team gets in and also the lack of sticking to whatever criteria you do have. Alabama got into the CFP in 2017 despite not winning their conference or even appearing in the conference championship game. Requirements that previously held out schools like TCU and Baylor in 2014. Ohio State even had the rules bent for them this year as the Big Ten originally said that teams would have to play at least six games to be eligible for the Big Ten Championship game. But the conference adapted the rules when Ohio State’s regular season ended at 5-0 due to games being cancelled by COVID. If the rules have to be changed for a team to make it into your playoff, they probably don’t deserve to be there. Also, your playoff is probably trash.
The sheer fact that winning football games is not enough for some teams to make it in is the biggest joke of all. Perfect example comes from the 2018 season in which the University of Central Florida went undefeated during the regular season after posting a perfect 13-0 record in 2017. UCF should’ve been a lock for the playoff after winning 25 straight games, including a bowl win over #7 Auburn. But no, the four teams that year were: Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama. UCF would finish #6 in the country after 2 full years of winning. Something no team in the playoff that year could say. Which brings me to the biggest issue, winning doesn’t matter. And if winning doesn’t matter, then what are we doing here? We’re just wasting everyone’s time so that the NCAA can give millions of dollars to Alabama and Clemson every year.
If you really want the CFP to work and be an actual playoff format there’s only one way to do that. Expansion. Ideally, I would like to expand the field to 16 teams but I realize that’s not totally realistic right now. I’ll happily settle for 8 teams. All of the Power 5 conference winners and then 3 at large bids. You’ll probably still get another SEC school or 2 in the mix (especially this year) but a wider field makes it less likely for the two schools to see each other again. Also, chances are we still end up with the classic Alabama/Clemson matchup we’ve grown accustomed to in the last few years, but at least you can make it a challenge for them. You also can afford to give a spot to a smaller school and see if they can’t make a Cinderella run to the championship game. Everybody wins. And after all, winning is what should be important.