On Monday the College Football Playoff committee announced that they are expanding the playoff to a 24-team field beginning with the 2027 season next year. They believe this is a great change for the sport because it gives more teams a chance to make the playoff who currently don't stand much of a chance in the 12-team model, but fans argue this is going to devalue the regular season too much.
People will probably debate whether expansion is good or bad for a long time, but Georgia is a great example for why the expanded playoff just isn't necessary.
Great programs like Georgia should be punished for bad seasons
Programs like Georgia will essentially have a free pass to the playoff every year now. A 9-3 record will always be good enough for Georgia to make the 24-team playoff, and there's a good chance an 8-4 record will be too. Georgia could say that is a good thing for them, but they deserve to miss the playoff if they have a bad season.
Only the best of the best deserve to play for a national championship. While Georgia is one of the biggest brands and best programs in the country, if they have a bad season they don't deserve a shot to win a national title. The playoff committee however is making it so teams like Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Notre Dame and Ohio State will potentially never miss the playoff which makes the regular season feel far less important.
Fans will watch regardless of which teams are in the playoff
The CFP committee might argue that it is a good thing for the top programs like Georgia, Texas and Alabama to make the playoff every year because that creates more exciting games. Exciting games theoretically is what will draw more viewers to the sport and potentially help grow the sport, but fans will watch regardless of who is playing.
If a team goes 12-0 during the regular season then college football fans will want to watch them in the playoff. That is the case whether that team is Georgia or some team like Syracuse or Michigan State. People want to watch good football, and if a team like Michigan State goes 12-0 fans from around the country will want to watch them play for a national title.
They will not want to watch an 8-4 Georgia get beat by an actually good team just because of the name on the front of their jersey.
Any team can make the 12-team playoff
If the playoff committee wanted to give more teams a chance to make the playoff then they already accomplished that by expanding to 12 teams. In 2024, the first year of the 12-team playoff, a whopping six teams made the playoff for the first time. For those not so good at math that is half of the field. Then in 2025 there were six more teams who made the playoff for the first time.
So don't let anyone say the 24-team playoff is giving more teams a chance to make the playoff. Sure that is technically true, but the 12-team playoff was giving plenty of new teams a chance to qualify while still making it challenging to get in.
Conference championship games are better than more playoff games
Potentially the worst thing about the expanded playoff is the end of conference championship games. The SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 already announced that this year is the last season for their conference championship games.
This has to be done to create enough room on the calendar for more playoff games. Remember, the CFP committee thinks that more playoff games automatically means more exciting games, but that isn't true if those playoff games see one of the top teams beat one of the last teams in the field by four touchdowns.
Conference championship games almost always produce great matchups. Conferences like the SEC and Big Ten typically have top 10 matchups, and even the ACC and Big 12 can send two highly ranked teams to their conference championship game. Just think of all the great conference championship games that Georgia has played in against Alabama and even Texas in 2024, those games are being replaced with playoff games that will either feature two teams not good enough to win a national title or a game that will be a complete blowout.
So while the committee thinks they're doing something good for the sport a program like Georgia proves them wrong. They can say they are doing what they think is the best thing for college football, but in reality their main motivation is so they can make more money. That shouldn't be what drives every decision in college football.
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