The college football playoff is always a hot topic when the season starts. Since its adaptation in 2014, several questions revolving around the playoffs have gone unanswered – many of them dealing with its expansion. The majority of those involved in college football expect to see the 4-team post season grow to involve at least 8 teams in the near future.
A proposal last summer for a 12-team playoff lacked support from three conferences: the BIG10, the PAC-12, and the ACC. Due to the lack of unanimous backing, that proposal was declined. However, there are four years left on the current television contract and plenty of time for the conferences to come to an agreement. It’s no longer a question of “if” the playoffs expand, but “when” it expands. As we saw when the playoff system was initially put in place, there will be more issues and more “what if” situations for the committee to figure out. When it comes time for expansion, there is one question that we all want to know:
What happens to the regular season?
There are several possibilities when it comes to including more post season games, but many college football fans assumed that the regular season would be condensed to exclude some of the “cupcake” games that have little upside to a team in a power 5 conference. Although we didn’t expect a direct answer to the question, Off the Hook Sports received one from Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff:
There are many issues with extending the number of games that college football players participate in during a single season, most of all the probability of an increase in substantial injuries. However, with the NIL in place, how much has the perception of these players changed from “college students” to “professional athletes”? if injuries were sustained due to the expansion of the post season, would administrations, fans, and players see these as unfortunate consequences of a better season or unnecessary sacrifices that could be avoided?
Only time, and money, will tell.
