A ‘study group’ recommends expanding the playoff from four to 12 teams, which would lead to too many games and the slow decline of the regular season, and would likely lead to the same …
The most engaging, involving and dramatic regular seasons in sports will disappear in 2026. No longer will you begin your Saturday by flipping on the TV at 9 a.m. and watch the dominoes fall until 11 p.m., from Columbus to Gainesville to Norman to Eugene. No longer will every game count. Consistency will be shelved. Health will be devalued. And, in all likelihood, the end of the road will feature the same crimson, orange and scarlet suspects. The College Football Playoff has totally erased what was a familiar and tiresome question, often voiced on the morning of Jan 2: So who was the best team? Ohio State (2014), Clemson (2016 and 2018), Alabama (2015,2017 and 2020) and LSU (2019) left little doubt. Having rendered that problem nonexistent, the suits are crafting a solution. They have proposed a 12-team matrix that will ooze its way through the committee maze and, one assumes, will be approved in September. Using the CFP rankings after the conference championship games, the new system would invite the top six league champs. Then it would include the next six highest-ranked teams. The top four would enjoy first-round byes. The highest seeds in the first round (5 through 8) would play those games in their home stadiums, which is smart, because it adds a weather element and it doesn’t ask its fans to travel. Then the tournament proceeds for three more weekends, at neutral sites. Let’s go back to 2019, the last previous full season.
