Let me be the first to say, I not a huge playoff expansion guy. Actually I prefer to have a round of bowl games and then + 1 game, but that’s not going to happen.
We know the playoff expansion is on the the table, and will likely occur. This weekend has convinced me despite it’s flaws, it’s the next logical post-season step for a several reasons.
ACC and Pac 12 Conference Championship Games
The ACC and Pac 12 conference featured 4 top 25 teams ranked from 10-17. Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Oregon and Utah playing in their conference championship games. None had a shot at making the playoffs which likely diminished national interest in their games.
Now let’s play those games where Power 5 conference championship are automatic qualifiers,
It makes every Power 5 conference championship a defacto playoff game. How fun would that be?
Georgia losing the SEC Championship game
Whether Georgia should be included in this year’s playoff should be a matter of much more debate than it likely will be. Georgia doesn’t have a top 15 win, didn’t win their conference, and got blown out in their conference title game.
The penalty for them?
They are probably dropping from 1 to 3 in the playoff rankings. In an expanded playoff, the penalty would be to play 3 games to win national title, while Alabama gains the benefit of having to win just 2 games. Even last year when Notre Dame didn’t win the ACC Championship game, they still made the playoff.
Make those conference championship games count for something.
Baylor winning the Big 12 Championship
Let’s look at Georgia again and their 0 top 15 wins. Baylor has 3 Top 15 wins, and a conference title. Yes there is an additional unranked loss to TCU, but why should we have to split hairs between an 11-2 Baylor team with better wins over a 12-1 Georgia team that was ranked number one prior to today.
An expanded playoff ends this debate.
If you were still on the fence about an expanded playoff, this weekend should have put you over the top.
It was a great weekend of college football, and an expanded playoff would have made it spectacular.
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