By Mya Mimbs
On Monday, Nov. 9, the news officially broke that the College Football Playoff would now feature 24 teams, doubling the number of participating teams.
I first heard about the news on Instagram from ESPN. The news, quite honestly, shocked me. Like everyone else, I knew that there had been discussions about expanding the playoffs; however, I truly didn’t think it would come to fruition.
That was me being optimistic, as I realize now in hindsight.
Initially, the news left me, like most college football fans, frustrated. Though now that I’ve had some time to think and read about the implications, I can form a more level-headed opinion.
So, here’s everything you need to know about this new college football era that will begin in 2027: the good, the bad and the undecided.
The Good
This expansion will eliminate the possibility of a team failing to qualify for the playoffs if they lose their conference championship. Though this wasn’t a common occurrence in the modern football era, it still happened.
The most recent example of this happened in 2023, when Georgia lost to Alabama in the SEC championship game. This created their only loss of the season and kept them from the playoffs. The public was led to believe that a conference championship loss did not play a role in whether a team would qualify for the playoffs.
That, however, was not the case, and Georgia did not rank high enough to qualify for the playoffs.
The reason this event will no longer be possible is that conference championships, as a whole, will no longer be played.
On that note, another positive is that this expansion gives more teams the opportunity to experience the College Football Playoff.
Since the 2014-15 season, only 27 teams have had the chance to appear in the College Football Playoff, and only seven of those teams have won in the past 12 years. With this expansion, more teams will have the opportunity to compete and vie for a chance to win it all.
This may be a controversial opinion; however, a good underdog story never killed anybody. Maybe, in the near future, the 24th-ranked team will fight its way to a national championship title, though only time will tell.
Another positive associated with the playoff expansion is that it will bring playoff games to more locations. With an additional round being added to the College Football Playoff, there will be a staggering 16 on-campus playoff games.
Though the reasoning behind that decision may sound less like inclusivity and more like cha-ching.
The Bad
It’s obvious that the biggest reason behind the expansion was money. While, in theory, this may be a good thing because that means more money will be invested in making college football better, that’s not necessarily the case. This unanimous decision was entirely based on the selfish desires of the College Football Playoff Management Committee.
The addition of 12 more playoff games will generate massive amounts of money, along with that $1.7 billion. That’s an estimated $70 million to $80 million more than the conference championships generated, according to CBS Sports.
That $70 million to $80 million will hopefully materialize because conference championships have officially been eliminated following this season. The SEC announced Monday that this will be its final championship after 35 years.
Conference championships are not just another game. They are games meant to showcase the best of the best within a conference and the two best teams that fought tooth and nail to come out on top. Teams compete against one another within their conferences all year, so the championship is there to determine which team truly comes out on top.
In a conference like the SEC, the conference championship just means more.
Another negative, along with the loss of conference championships, is that losses will not carry as much weight as they do now.
With Tennessee’s 7-2 record, fans watch every game with anxiety, knowing that this could be the game to end their playoff chances. Now that anxiety is gone. A team could have three or even four losses but still make the playoffs. While the quality of a loss is supposed to be taken into account, every college football fan will tell you that isn’t always the case.
This expansion makes college football more like the NFL, where teams don’t need to worry about having a perfect record but instead just need to focus on staying healthy for the postseason. This takes away some of the grit and fierceness needed to keep a team’s season alive.
The entire reason college football is so special is because of the harsh climb to the top. Players, for the most part, play for the love of the game. They are given a limited number of years with their teams, so every game becomes special. College football used to have heart and soul; however, with this expansion, the corporate greed associated with the NFL is starting to creep in.
While an underdog story is usually appreciated and celebrated in sports, it has its drawbacks. For instance, there are not 24 teams in college football right now that can win the national championship; there just aren’t.
With this 24-team expansion, there will be teams that have no business being in the playoffs going against the true contenders of the season. This creates boring matchups for viewers and takes away the opportunity for less talented teams to play evenly matched bowl games.
While there is always a chance for one team to have a Cinderella run, the chances of that happening are much slimmer than in other sports, such as soccer or basketball. The elite teams are considered elite for a reason, so for one of the weaker teams in the playoffs to pull off an upset, it would take a miracle.
The Undecided
All in all, no one knows how this 24-team expansion will turn out. Speculation and guesses about what can and will happen are the only ways anyone can predict what the coming years will bring.
Football has always been an ever-changing sport. From the rules to the dominant teams and, most recently, the playoff format, football will never stay exactly the same.
The negatives of this playoff expansion undoubtedly outweigh the positives; however, through all this uncertainty and frustration, it is best to keep an open mind. You never know how you will feel about this expansion next year. Maybe it will turn out to be a good thing.