One thing those of you who brush aside concerns that the CFP might grow beyond an eight-team field tend to overlook is how invested coaches are in having as many teams taste a playoff as possible. Nothing polishes a coach’s resume like a “made the national tournament” entry. Jim Boeheim is probably the best known advocate of the more, the merrier approach, but now Jim Harbaugh is ready to throw his hat in the ring.
“I would just analyze it in terms of every other sport whether its gymnastics, basketball, pro football, FCS football … pick a sport and they have a playoff to get to a champion,” Harbaugh said. “None of them start with the last four. You have a great model with the NFL with their 12 teams and a great model in the FCS with their 16 teams and they just (increased) it to 24.”
Yeah, baby! Who doesn’t love more games? What’s that you say… the players? Pfft.
A 16-team playoff would force the eventual champion to play four postseason games which could add extra weeks to the season but Harbaugh said the season is already long as it is.
“The national champion now is playing 15 games, 14 games for the teams in the playoffs,” Harbaugh said. “They are already playing a lot of games.”
In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. At least if you’re the one making money off the deal.
Get The Picture 
I have an idea – lets move to a 6-8 game regular season, followed by a field of 64 or 128 playoffs, thus making the regular season totally inconsequential (unless you’re UT and fail to win a single conference game). First round matchup: 7-1 UGA vs 3-5 Kent State!
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Great idea. Gets my vote. Eliminate conferences. Who needs em
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McGarity can send an a mail, “Send an additional contribution to enhance your Hartman Fund score before UGA v. Kent State tickets go on sale!!!”
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And when Harbaugh’s #1 seeded Michigan team loses to #16 seed Appalachian State at home on a freak blocked field goal attempt returned for a touchdown at the end of the game, no doubt Harbaugh will be whining that the playoffs shouldn’t be so big and it’s a shame a whole season of good results is wiped out by the freakiness and randomness of a single game…
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That douche is talking again?
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Well, let’s take a look at how they’re doing it in the FCS. Currently the FCS has a 16 team playoff. Teams play an 11 game season. The first round of the 16 team playoff began on November 25. If you win you play again on December 2. Win there and play again on December 9. Should you win again your next game is on December 15. Win that and you’re in the national championship game January 6. So, if you make it all the way you could play as many as 16 games. If you don’t make it at all your season is 11 games and you’re done by Thanksgiving. If you do get into the playoffs your school may get to host several more games (more revenue!). On the other hand five of the original sixteen teams in the playoffs lost four games and one of them lost six. Hardly playoff worthy in my book. But hey, there’s that more revenue thing.
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The FCS playoffs have been set at 24 teams since 2013. There are eight first-round games; the rest get first-week byes.
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I stand corrected. I Googled FCS playoff and got a sixteen team grid. I didn’t realize there was a first round bye. Clearly, I don’t actually follow any FCS teams.
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But expanded playoffs generate more enthusiasm, even among the casual CFB fan. You should KNOW this stuff!!! Ask anyone in a Montana bar.
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More games tends to equate with more injuries, especially at the end of the season when everyone is worn down. Puts a premium on having depth at certain positions. This could turn into a championship won, not by the best team, but by the one that’s most injury free.
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Or, as with many playoff systems, it turns into who is hot at the end of the season. Better to peak late than early.
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Brackets!!! FTW!!
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They are going to regret making the regular season meaningless. The regular season’s tension and importance is what has made college football unique in American sport. Screw with it at your own peril. Look at the Iron Bowl this year. One of the great upsets of the year ended up being meaningless.
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How was it meaningless? It was how they got to play for the SEC title and a playoff spot.
By that logic, every single game is meaningless as soon as someone wins the title.
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yet the team that got the playoff spot didn’t have to play for a playoff spot ? Instead, the loser of the Iron Bowl got the “bye”. Im just sayin… the point is valid and only increasingly so upon expansion.
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If they’d lost the Iron Bowl, they wouldn’t have even played for a spot.
So winning the Iron Bowl was absolutely crucial and incredibly meaningful to them even having a chance.
Also, had Wisconsin not choked in their regular season game, Alabama’s iron bowl loss would have cost them too.
The game was far from meaningless.
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you’re sort of proving our point. 4 gives you an ioata of wiggle room… with a 4 team playoff, Alabama MAYBE needed to win the iron… with an 8 team playoff, the pressure would be reduced astronomically.
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Scare tactics. Why don’t we get it right before we talk about extremist versions. Keep the discussion off improvements and move on to the disaster scenarios with zip chance of working, or being adopted.
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Who’s this “we” you’re referring to, Mac? Did you get named a P5 commissioner and not tell us?
Money drives this and nothing else. That’s all the Delanys and Sankeys are trying to get right.
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Another ridiculous response from you. Yeah, i am really Jim Delany incognito. You are way too smart and found me out. Genius. Excuse me for thinking “we” might be having a discussion, which would include a thought that a taking a position that “we” need 8 automatically means “we” have to go to 16/32/64/128. Scare tactics, pure and simple.
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Damn, Mac, chill a little. You sound like me. 😉
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Does that mean we can listen to some Eagles together through your new speakers and sip some Woodford, or Makers 46, or Angels Envy? 🙂
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Yes to the Woodford/Angels Envy. I’ll ignore the Eagles part. 😉
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Bulleit is good too.
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And the Eagles now have their own station on Sirius. Whoopee!
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Those who advocate for 8 don’t get the unintended consequences. You move everything out a week. Quarterfinals would be this weekend on campus. Bowl assignments couldn’t be made until Sunday and that squeezes all of the fan logistics by another week. It puts the final 8 teams playing right up to final exams with another 20-hour practice week.
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The bowl lobby (as always) will stir the pot…and they will grudgingly go to an 8 team playoff (Delaney and the Big 10 won’t take this rude treatment much longer)…as an aside, then the media darling, Notre Dame, can have a better way to get in…
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That’s a very valid point about ND. As they continue to schedule 5 ACC teams each year their margin for losses gets tighter. Two losses on a season and they gone…
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If they went to a 16-team playoff, we might end up seeing the magic age fall to 27 or 28 when runningbacks just lose their edge.
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Coach who finished his first two seasons with his current team ranked 12 and 10 wants a 16 team playoff? Shocking!
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