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The College Football Playoff is Close to Expanding to 24 Teams, Which Nobody Asked For
By Matt Schultz
Published:
This has been rumored for a while, and it looks like it’s just about official:
We all already know that, by and large, the only concern of the big wigs and the TV networks is to make more money. The product doesn’t matter. The consumers don’t matter. Whatever it takes — no matter the ethical hangups or the plummeting public opinion or the long-term negative impact it may have on the business itself — these folks will always, always prioritize profit. It’s nothing new. We see this every day in every industry. We see it in sports all the time. At this point it’s pretty hard to be jarred by it.
But this one’s an exception for me. I am jarred. This is nuts. Even as far as egregious, greed-fueled money-grabs go, this is nuts. No one in the world wants a 24-team college football playoff. In fact, it’s the exact opposite: everyone is universally, vocally opposed to going to 24 teams. You know how rare that is? For 99% of people to agree on anything on any topic? That never, ever happens, but it’s happening here, because we can all clearly see this is terrible for college football.
We all know this will make the regular season pretty much not matter. We all know this will essentially eliminate the value of a conference championship. We all know having 24 teams is going to wildly water down the playoff. We all know this only helps power conferences and will continue to bleed out smaller programs, that injury risk will rise with the extra games, that traditional bowl games will probably all die off, etc. etc., etc.
And college football is doing it anyway, so the TV networks and big schools can make more money… Despicable…
But whattaya gonna do. This is the way of the world. At least we can all look forward to 2052, when college football finally flies too close to the sun and expands the CFP to 836 teams and the bubble bursts and everything resets to the BCS.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com