The Big Ten and SEC are at odds on what expanded playoff format model will be best for college football. The two biggest conferences can’t agree on whether the SEC 5+11 model or the Big Ten 4-4-2-2-1 model is best moving forward. The problem is that both conferences hold the power and need to agree for expansion to take place. It leaves the rest of the sport in limbo about what the future playoff will look like. The truth of the matter is that playoff expansion is based on greed, but bigger is not always better. What separates college football from other sports is a regular season where every game matters. Expanding the playoff again will water down and eliminate the one thing that made the sport different.
College football had the most meaningful regular season in sports because perfection was the expectation. It made things like winning a conference title or beating a rival an accomplishment. The 12-team playoff, however, has already started to erode many of the things that separated the sport from others.
The conferences want an extended playoff for one reason: more games, more money. Is the expanded playoff payday worth the expense of losing tradition, rivalries and the greatest regular season in sports? Bigger isn’t always better.
Perfection Is the Expectation
For decades, the one thing that made college football different was the expectation to be perfect. One loss could cost a team the chance to play for a national championship. And it didn’t matter if it came in a week two match-up between Oregon and North Dakota State or a week 12 game between Ole Miss and Texas A&M, a loss had the power to derail a season. It was that expectation of perfection that made the college football regular season the greatest in all of sports.
Games like Notre Dame suffering one of its worst losses in program history, a 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois, came with zero ramifications. Clemson finished the season with three losses but still had the chance to compete in the playoff after winning the ACC. Tennessee lost to a bad Arkansas and Georgia, with their only good win coming against an average Alabama team, and still got in. The 12-team playoff has already de-emphasized losses in the regular season. What would a 16-team model do to it?
More Sports News
The four-team playoff model gave teams some cushion to overcome a loss. The 12-team playoff just expanded the cushion even more, making losing acceptable. A two-loss Ohio State was able to win a national championship, something that was unthinkable two years ago. The positive, Ohio State was the best team in college football and got to show it. The negative was that they were forgiven for their failures during the regular season. It’s that forgiveness for losing that is watered down by the greatest regular season in sports, turning into every other regular season in sports.
Rivalries Put on Life Support
Arguably, the greatest rivalry game in sports, Ohio State against Michigan, couldn’t keep the rivalry as meaningful in a 12-team playoff. Ohio State suffered its worst loss in “The Game” history, but instead of ruining the season, the Buckeyes benefited from it. If there was one thing Ohio State and Michigan could agree on, it was that winning “The Game” was the only thing that mattered. Now it only matters if the winning team makes it farther in the playoff. It took one year for the 12-team playoff to eliminate the meaning behind one of the most heated rivalries in sports.
Every rivalry will lose the significance that made them special as the playoff expands, because losing a game doesn’t mean anything anymore.
Sports, in general, have already seen what expanding the playoffs does to rivalries. Games like Philadelphia against Dallas in the NFL or Boston against New York in the MLB have become just a game fans want to win a little more, but won’t dwell on the loss. Ohio State fans should have had a year of dwelling over the Michigan loss, but instead, it was only a few weeks, because they paid no penalties for losing the game.
The 12-team CFP has already devalued winning the Michigan-Ohio State game and if it can devalue a game where the two states hate each other, it will do the same to every other rivalry in college football.
The End of the Conference Championship
Regardless, if it’s the 5+11 model or the 4-4-2-2-1, the conference championship loses the value behind it. Why, because both teams will get in almost every year. The question becomes, why play a game that doesn’t matter?
The premise behind college football was simple: win your conference for a chance to win a national championship. The four-team playoff changed from winning to playing in the game. The 12-team playoff made it so that you don’t even have to play in it anymore. Ohio State missed out on the Big Ten Championship after losing their last game as a 23-point favorite, but still took home the national championship, proving you don’t even need to play in the game anymore.
In 2024, both teams that played in the conference championship from the SEC and Big Ten, along with the ACC, made the playoff. It shows that regardless of whether you win the game, you will make the playoff. Just like rivalries, expanding the playoff again will just devalue the value of winning the conference even more.
College football, through expansion, is moving toward an NFL-looking playoff. The problem is that in the NFL, winning your conference comes with the benefits of a home game or multiple ones. College football’s refusal to do away with bowl games and put most of the game on campus makes winning the conference meaningless.
And with no intangible benefit, is it worth risking injuries to win a meaningless game? Georgia, for example, was it worth losing Carson Beck for the playoff to win the SEC championship? If Kirby Smart had the pick to win the SEC or have Beck for the playoff run, I would bet he picks the playoff.
Playoff expansion comes at a price, and the question is whether it is worth paying that price for a few more games. Fans are told the expansion is to keep fans engaged and to give more teams the opportunity to get in. The truth is, it has nothing to do with inclusion or engagement and everything to do with money—the more games, the more money. A 16-team playoff, regardless of the model, will add to the ever-growing separation between the SEC and Big Ten and everyone else.
