College Football Playoff expansion is no-brainer decision that was long time coming | Opinion
College Football Playoff expansion is such a no-brainer decision that it’s remarkable it took this long to approve. Instead of speaking to any widespread issues with a larger format, the delayed inability to land on the same page reinforces how difficult it has become to get all of the sport’s power brokers and deciders to come to a consensus.
The 12-team layout announced Friday represents a major step forward for the Bowl Subdivision at a time when college football has become fractured by realignment and NIL, among other issues.
With this broader hurdle of how the postseason will be structure passed, the playoff now turns to the two big questions that will determine the blueprint for determining the national champion: When will the new format got into effect, and how will it look?
Having agreed on expansion, the key moving forward will be addressing the minutiae and vital details that had not found consensus even among Power Five conference peers, let alone the overlooked Group of Five camp.
And the clock is ticking: Expansion is expected to go into effect as soon as 2024 but no later than 2026. That looming deadline could tax the decision-makers behind the playoff and further split an already fractured FBS.
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But the format offered by the Board of Managers behind the playoff comes the closest of any possible blueprint to including the widest range of FBS teams and conferences.
The field will consist of the six highest-rated conference champions and the next six best at-large picks.
The six conference winners would ensure that at least one current Group of Five league will have a chance to play for and conceivably win the national championship. When was the last time these underdog leagues were given a legitimate shot at standing atop the sport?
In other words, this format may find the sweet spot that has long proven elusive during successive attempts over the past three decades at finding the best way to settle the chase for the national championship.
The Group of Five gets an automatic bid, and could theoretically place a second team as a conference champion or as an at-large bid.
Every Power Five league is guaranteed a bid. For leagues that suffer a championship-game upset, which has cost conferences such as the Pac-12 in recent years, the second-place team could find a soft landing spot as one of those at-large picks.
There’s even the chance that assuring six conference bids saves an embattled league like the Pac-12, which has been and may continue to be poached by other Power Five peers but may be seen as more viable given the opportunity to always send at least one team to the playoff.
And the two heavyweights, the SEC and Big Ten, also benefit enormously from expansion — one or both are almost assured of having at least two - if not more - teams in the field every season.
Given how the proposal widens the path to the championship game — and floods more cash into everyone’s pockets — it’s very possible that the 12-team field will be the most popular decision made on college football’s highest level since, well, the four-team playoff.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College Football Playoff expansion is no-brainer decision
