ACC commissioner says eight teams 'ideal' for playoff
ACC commissioner John Swofford likes the idea of an eight-team College Football Playoff.
Swofford spoke at a Durham Sports Club Meeting on Wednesday and according to the Durham Herald-Sun said “in terms of the number of teams, would probably be ideal" when referring to the CFP.
“I don’t think all the controversy’s going to go away,” Swofford said of the new system. “You have four teams that get a chance to play for the national championship, which is twice as many as before, but whoever’s fifth or sixth is not going to be happy. There will be some conferences that won’t have a team in the playoff.”
The ACC might be that conference. Reigning national champion Florida State, ranked third in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s weekly ratings, is the league’s only team in position to contend for a playoff berth.
“I feel really good about where we are at this point in time,” Swofford. “I hope I feel as good about it in a few weeks — December the seventh — when they announce who’s in the playoff, meaning I hope we have a team in it.”
While it would be easy to assume that Swofford is speaking out of immediate self-interest — if Florida State lost a game this year it'd likely be out of a four-team playoff but still in an eight-team one, — he's speaking about the inevitability of expansion.
While the College Football Playoff director Bill Hancock has said previously that the playoff is committed to four teams for 12 years, it's not a bad bet to think expansion will happen before 2026. After all, the BCS expanded and added a separate National Championship Game after rotating through the main bowls and Swofford is also a member of the management committee for the playoff. His words carry some weight.
While Swofford said that December exams limited the playoff to four teams initially, those concerns are more paperweight than anchor in terms of obstacles. Playoff formats thrive in non-FBS divisions of college football.
Swofford also said that he thinks realignment — at least among Power Five conference schools — is slowing down.
“For the next 12 to 15 years, I don’t think you’ll see movement in the Power Five conferences,” Swofford said. “Unless someone grows and adds a team not currently in the Power Five, but I don’t think you’ll see any teams moving within it.”
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
