College Football Playoff expansion — what took so long?

Dec. 3—The end is near for the four-team College Football Playoff, and on Dec. 3 it showed it’s going out with a big bang — and not in a good way.

Only in big-time college football — where for decades national championships were once awarded by sports writers and polls — can less than 1 percent of members FBS programs qualify for the playoffs and a section of fans are upset expansion is on the way.

Since its inception in 2014, there have been some CFP snubs with the most notable being 11-1 TCU in 2014 and 12-1 Ohio State in 2018.

The omission of 13-0 Florida State to this season’s CFP is undoubtedly the biggest snub of all. Here’s the thing coming from this corner — 12-1 Alabama was better suited for the fourth and final playoff spot over the Seminoles.

That doesn’t mean FSU fans don’t deserve sympathy today. Seminole Nation and college football fans everywhere deserved better. But the College Football Playoff deserved this embarrassment of leaving the ‘Noles on the outside.

For a decade, the FBS dragged its feet with its playoff format and now it’s paying the price as for the first time an undefeated champion from a Power 5 conference has been snubbed. It’s a surprise it didn’t happen sooner.

Help is finally on the way. That’s because the four-team CFP will officially be dead very soon, and thank goodness. It’s been a decade of ridiculousness not having at least an eight-team playoff.

On the way beginning next season is a 12-team playoff with the top four teams receiving first-round byes. The remaining eight teams will be seeded from 5 to 12, with the 12 seed playing at the campus of the 5 seed. Other matchups would be the 11 seed playing at the 6, the 10 at the 7 and the 9 seed at the 8.

Here’s how a 12-team playoff would have looked this season:

Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama — in that order —…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football-playoff-expansion-took-044600793.html

Author : The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio

Publish date : 2023-12-04 04:46:00

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