From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about unpopular opinions. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all our “Unpopular Opinion” articles here.
Is bigger really better? All around sports, it feels like we are getting more of everything. The NFL now has 17 games in a regular season. The NBA has recently started holding a play-in tournament just before the playoffs. MLB has expanded its playoffs to include a wild-card round. Even college basketball is looking at the possibility of expanding the NCAA Tournament beyond the 68 teams that currently qualify for March Madness. In some cases, it feels like too much, since in reality, you’re not going to see those teams who only earned postseason spots because of playoff expansion going on to win it all.
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It’s not that I don’t love there being more college football to watch, I just don’t feel like a 16-team College Football Playoff is necessary. A 12-team playoff already feels like too much, especially when you consider the wear and tear it puts on college athletes. While those concerns are a little easier to stomach now that college football players are being compensated with NIL deals, the expansion of the playoff is getting out of hand. How often are we going to see teams that fall in the expanded section of the playoffs truly contending for the title? We’d probably see teams that fall in the 12 to 16 range of the field making even the semifinals just a handful of times.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: JAN 20 CFP National Championship – Notre Dame vs Ohio State
It’s understandable why the CFP field keeps expanding. If you air it, they will come, especially when brands that are ratings monsters like Ohio State are included in the field. The Buckeyes could be playing on a patch of dirt before sunrise on a Wednesday in the middle of January, and they would still draw an impressive TV number.
You just know the higher-ups had to be thrilled when Ohio State won the first 12-team playoff since it allowed ESPN to air four games with Buckeye Nation powering massive ratings. After seeing how well viewership did for the first 12-team playoff as a whole, it’s easy to see why executives are pushing for even more playoff games.
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Even though more college football is something that everyone loves, let’s not pretend that the product in the first round of the playoffs was any good. The closest of the four games in the first round of the expanded CFP was decided by 10 points when Notre Dame beat Indiana 27-17, but the game never felt that close after the Fighting Irish jumped out to a sizable lead.
Only two of the 11 games in last season’s playoffs were decided by single digits. Texas beat Arizona State 39-31 in overtime in the quarterfinals, followed by Notre Dame beating Penn State 27-24 to earn a spot in the title game against Ohio State. Otherwise, there wasn’t a lot of drama in the playoff games.
If we’re being honest, an eight-team playoff feels like it would be the sweet spot for a college football postseason. The field would be composed of automatic qualifiers from the conference champions from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12, along with the top Group of Five school, and three at-large bids.
No byes, you have to win three playoff games if you want to be a national champion. While this model would unfortunately eliminate the on-campus first-round games since there is no way the CFP is going to get rid of their tie-ins with the prestigious bowl games, we would get a better product on the field in playoff games.
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I know what you’re probably thinking right about now. If there were only eight teams in last year’s playoff, then Ohio State likely would have been left on the outside looking in following their loss to Michigan. With a 12 or 16-team playoff field, the annual battle with That Team Up North doesn’t feel quite as important as it used to be. The first year of the playoff was the perfect example since despite the Buckeyes losing in Columbus in their final game of the regular season, the pain of the loss was eased a bit a couple of months later since Buckeye Nation was able to celebrate a national title.
One person who is undoubtedly happy about an expanded playoff is head coach Ryan Day, since the heat on his seat cooled significantly after losing his fourth straight game to the Wolverines after he led the Buckeyes to glory in the playoff.
2025 CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T- Ohio State v Notre Dame
You could expand the College Football Playoff to 100 teams, and there will be people arguing that the 101st team in the country had a case to be part of the playoff field. At some point, we have to say enough. When a college football season starts, there are only a handful of teams with a true shot at a national title.
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With NIL and depth advantages that teams like Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State have, we don’t need the fourth or fifth-place teams in the Big Ten or SEC to be part of the playoff. Last year, Bret Bielema and Illinois felt they had a case to be a part of the playoff, but you’re crazy if you think the Fighting Illini had a real chance to make any noise in the postseason.
Anyone who knows me probably thinks I’ve gone crazy for even thinking about shrinking the playoff field, just because when it comes to sports, I can never get enough. More games mean more action to watch and bet on, and who doesn’t love that?
I guess I’m getting old and am moving into my “get off my lawn” stage since I’d rather the playoff be smaller if it leads to better action on the field. As a bonus, with the playoff features not as many teams, maybe we could see the college football season closer to New Year’s Day rather than mid to late January. Last season, the semifinals and title game felt a little more like an afterthought since they took place when the focus of the football world was on the NFL playoffs.
The fact that football is so physical also makes it tougher to watch with more games. By the time the playoffs rolled around last season, there were a number of teams that were really struggling with injuries. Georgia had to start their backup quarterback after Carson Beck was injured, while Notre Dame and Ohio State were banged up heading into the title game.
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Even though injuries can happen in any game, they are more likely to occur as the season goes on and there is already considerable wear and tear on players from the grind of the regular season.
In a time when we are demanding more of everything, we need to have a bit of restraint when it comes to deciding a national champion in college football. Continuing to expand the field only waters down the games and takes away from the product.
If we’re not careful, there will be a time soon when we are begging to see the number of teams in the playoff contracted because the games in the early rounds could end up being largely uncompetitive, even more so than we saw in the first year of the 12-team playoff.
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