Jim Henry: Expanded playoffs would provide new teams

Jim Henry, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·3 min read

Jun. 19—There is one obvious benefit should NCAA Division I expand its college football playoff bracket from four teams to 12.

There will be some new teams, and fans won't have watch basically the same teams every year.

Since college football went to a four-team playoff after the 2014 regular season, only 11 teams have participated. and in the 21 total games — three each year — Alabama (8), Clemson (6) and Ohio State (3) have combined to win 17 of them. The Tide has rolled to three titles, Clemson two and Ohio State one.

LSU won twice to capture the championship in 2020, and Oregon and Georgia won semifinal games in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

The five playoff teams who haven't won a game are Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Washington, Michigan State and Florida State.

An 11-man committee that oversees the college football playoff met Thursday and Friday at the Big Ten Conference headquarters outside Chicago. One topic concerned how conferences would handle determining league champions. Obviously the leagues want the best plan to help them get more than one team in the playoffs.

A conference has had two of the four spots in the playoffs twice. The SEC's Georgia and Alabama both made the playoffs in 2017 — even though Alabama did not even win its division. and last year the ACC was represented by Clemson and Notre Dame, which played a league schedule because of COVID-19. However, Notre Dame is returning to its independent status this year, and the ACC has gone back to two divisions after dropping that format lsat year.

The initial plan calls for the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams to comprise the 12 teams. There would not be any automatic bids, and there would not be any limitation on the numbers of teams from a league.

On Friday the Pac-12 Conference pushed for automatic bids to the Power-5 Conference champions. That would not be necessary because those five teams will made the playoffs without question.

The 12-team bracket would have first-round byes for the top-four teams, and teams ranked 5 through 8 would have a home game against teams 9 through 12.

Had this format been in place last year, this would have been the bracket:

No. 12 Coastal Carolina at No. 5 Texas A&M, and the winner advances to play No. 4 Notre Dame in a bowl game;

No. 11 Indiana at No. 6 Oklahoma, with the winner getting No. 3 Ohio State;

No. 10 Iowa State at No. 7 Florida, with the winner getting No. 2 Clemson;

No. 9 Georgia at No. 8 Cincinnati, with the winner getting No. 1 Alabama.

In the first seven playoffs, the No. 1 seed became champion only twice — LSU in 2020 and Alabama this year. The second seed has won three times and the fourth seed twice.

The 12-team playoff could start as early as 2023, but it could be delayed another three years because college football's contract with ESPN expires in 2026.

Here's hoping the sooner the better.

Follow Sports Editor Jim Henry on Twitter at @Jim_Henry53.