There is a general consensus that the College Football Playoff not expanding is bad. Paul Finebaum is apoplectic about how things played out. But maybe this is for the best. You need to look no further than college basketball for the perils of postseason sprawl.
March Madness and its 68 teams are exciting. There is no doubt about it. However, the four months preceding March are just sort of there these days. The sport’s regular season has become little more than means to an end. It would be a travesty for college football to suffer the same fate.
Currently, there is no better regular season in sports than college football. Every week is full of excitement, upsets and must-see moments. It all stems from the sense of urgency every Saturday in autumn has.
The College Football Playoff expanding could reduce that sense of urgency. Now, it won’t be as bad as college basketball where losses don’t matter. But if two-loss teams can make the postseason, it will take away from what makes the regular season so special.
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The ugly side of the College Football Playoff expanding
Half-empty arenas, apathetic fans and a general feeling of indifference dominate college basketball’s regular season. This sucks because the sport is great. But the only thing really at stake are mediocre major conference schools jockeying for a place in the NCAA Tournament. There is no joy in debating if the Big Ten’s eighth best team should get in over the Big 12’s fifth placed side.
Every college football game is essentially a win-or-go home affair. No school can be sure that a single loss won’t keep them out of the playoff. It doesn’t get any more intense than that. Adding room for error will ultimately lessen the intensity of the season.
The counter argument is that many schools currently have nothing to play for as the season progresses, but that hasn’t really impacted the sport. People still watch games and most teams play hard into November.
The College Football Playoff isn’t expanding and maybe that’s good. Would more teams in the postseason have made Joe Burrow’s run in 2019 better? Would a larger playoff field really have made last season more exciting? Four teams have proven to be a perfectly acceptable solution. There is no shame in not fixing something that isn’t broken.
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