At a time when college football coaches want to expand the size of the playoff from 12 to 24 teams, one of college football’s biggest broadcast partners isn’t interested.
Via Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday that ESPN doesn’t want the size of the field to exceed 16 teams.
Both positions are predictable. More teams in the playoffs means more successful college coaches, especially when bonuses are available to coaches who qualify for the postseason. However, more teams in the playoffs further undermines the bowls, most of which ESPN televises.
Expanding beyond 12 avoids having the 13th team complaining it should have gotten a seat at the table. Of course, there will always be that first team to miss the cut, no matter how many teams are added.
The only way to minimize the “snub” argument is to have so many teams that no one would regard the best team that didn’t make it as a non-viable team to run the table. Which would result in the inclusion of multiple teams that have no business being there.
A playoff is better than the old system of picking a champion. An expanded playoff would result in more players not making the business decision to skip a meaningless bowl game.
It also will result in more games. More wear and tear. More chances to get injured before embarking on a pro career.
However it goes, the playoff is going in the direction of adding more teams. Whether that’s two or four or 12 remains to be seen.
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