Earlier Monday afternoon, college football analyst Joel Klatt discussed whether the College Football Playoffs format will expand to 16 teams by 2026. The format began in 2014 with four teams.
More specifically, the best four teams in college football. However, for the 2024-2025 season, the College Football Playoff Board made the executive decision to expand the Playoffs from four teams to 16, with the four major conferences and one group of five teams earning an automatic bid.
Klatt mentioned that, if the College Football Playoff Board pushes for the 16-team Playoff model in 2026, conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC may go for four automatic bids each.
Those conferences should be rewarded for being the two best conferences in college football. Since the College Football Playoffs started, eight of the ten National Champions have been from those respective conferences. The only outlier is Clemson, which belongs to the ACC.
Why Is That Proposed Model Unfair?
Klatt mentioned that those two conferences could become even greedier and ask for a fifth or even sixth automatic bid. He is pushing for an access-based model rather than a rankings-based model. He wants the College Football Playoff Committee to have less and less power.
In recent memory, the College Football Playoff Committee has made its fair share of mistakes with the Playoff rankings and has received a lot of backlash on social media. However, conferences should not get four, five, or even six automatic bids for being the top conference.
No matter how many teams can make the Playoffs, whether the model is kept at 12 or improved to 16, they should be the top teams in the country, no matter what conference.
Take this past March Madness, for example. Even though it is a different sport with way more teams in the tournament, the ideology remains the same. In the SEC, 14 of the 16 teams made March Madness. A huge reason was that there were so many elite teams in Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and Arkansas.
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Yes, Florida won the National Championship, and Auburn also made the Final Four. However, in the first round, the SEC finished with a record of 8-6, with some teams losing to lesser competition and/or getting blown out. Gonzaga blew out Georgia, Vanderbilt lost to St Mary’s, Texas lost to Xavier in the First Four, and Missouri lost to Drake by double digits.
Are the SEC and Big Ten Conferences the best in College Football? Yes, lately. However, the College Football Playoffs should be determined by the best teams in the country overall, not the best teams in the best conference.
Alabama would have automatically been in the playoffs using the standings from this past season with this model. Meanwhile, Alabama lost two of its last three games, including a 21-point blowout loss to the unranked Oklahoma Sooners.
Their other loss was to the unranked Michigan Wolverines in a Bowl Game, where quarterback Jalen Milroe had three turnovers in the first half (one interception and two fumbles lost).
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Tennessee, which would have been the third team in the SEC to earn an automatic bid, was crushed by Ohio State in the first round by a score of 42-17.
If the Big Ten and SEC were each given two or maybe even three automatic bids, there would not be as much backlash as if they had received at least four. If they received four, then how would it be handled if the Big 12 and the ACC wanted four bids as well?
Giving the two conferences the four guaranteed automatic bids adds much more confusion and imbalance.
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