Pete Thamel is reporting that the Big Ten wants to expand the College Football Playoff from 12 to 24-28 teams.
Thamel says the Big Ten wants to eliminate conference championship games and instead have a bunch of at-large bids.
Thamel added:
“The idea is in very early stages. It comes from the Big Ten’s intent of keeping the conferences races meaningful and making November regular season football meaningful across the leagues. Also, it incentivizes strong non-conference games.
The 28-team format would put 20 CFP games on campus, which would accentuate the success of that from last year’s CFP. The CFP Committee would seed the field and pick the at-larges.”
Naturally, the thought of the College Football Playoff expanding to nearly 30 teams did not sit well with most people.
Starting with ESPN’s Greg McElroy and Cole Cubic whose show posted an emoji of hands slapping a forward when they heard the news.
Most college football fans agreed with that sentiment that they do not want to expand the field to 24 teams and are happy with 12. There is already talk of expanding the field to 16 in the next year or two, but some are wondering if the Big Ten gets their way, why have a regular season?
The regular season, argue most, is the playoff. You have to play your way into the CFP. If the playoff expands to nearly 30 teams,it would make the regular season all but obsolete and the Big Ten plan all but guarantees the Power 5 would win the national championship every year.
The point of expanding the playoff was to allow smaller teams who may not normally get an invite to the party in and give them an opportunity to win it all as well, expanding to that large of field all but eliminates that.