My wish is for the College Football Playoff to be expanded beyond four teams. The only way that's going to happen anytime soon is if the SEC somehow gets left out. The playoff field would be expanded within five minutes if that affront to college football ever came to pass.
The football power structure--by which I mean ESPN--has always bent over backwards to make sure an SEC team is playing for the championship. ESPN didn't pay $5.64 billion for the TV rights to the playoffs only to have no representative in them from the most popular conference, which also is its partner with the SEC Network. If that's not possible then Notre Dame also will do.
Well, look at that: Right now Alabama and Notre Dame are the only teams with a loss to make the playoff cut. The Tide lost to sub par Ole Miss at home but all was forgiven once they beat overrated LSU at home. No shame for the Irish in losing a close game at Clemson but also no quality victories on their resume.
Anyway, Bama needs to lose again for my dream of an expanded playoffs to become reality. Charleston Southern and Auburn are not going to make it happen, which means SEC East champion Florida must beat Bama in the conference title game . But the Gators can't be anywhere near the top four in the playoff standings when they do it or the committee will just swap one SEC team with one loss for another.
That means I need Florida to lose before getting to the SEC championship game, and then beat the Tide in the Dome. The Florida Atlantic Owls (2-8) don't have it in them, so it's up to you, Florida State Seminoles. That wild loss to Georgia Tech made your path to the playoffs perilous, and losing at Clemson pretty much ended your run to another ACC title. But beat the hated Gators to derail their playoff bid and a disappointing season instantly becomes pretty good.
And if the Gators subsequently bounced back from losing to the Noles and went on to beat Bama, there is no credible way the committee could select a two-loss SEC team for the playoffs. With the SEC left out, ESPN would work overtime to add more slots for future playoffs to ensure that the SEC always gets in. Controversy is good for ESPN's business but an SEC team in the playoffs is better.
I favor an eight-team playoff. Give automatic bids to the winners of the Power 5 conferences, one for the highest-ranked Group of 5 team and two at-large bids. That's three weekends of playoffs football, one more than the current system. Power 5 programs probably would have to give up one of their home "guarantee games" against Directional U, but certainly there's a way to make up for that loss revenue with even more money from the playoff pot.
With that in mind: Go Noles, Beat Gators. And then: Go Gators, Beat Bama.
About the Author
