It seems to be a yearly discussion in the sports media world.
Since the College Football Playoff began after the BCS era ended in 2014, “brand” teams such as Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and others have been consistent representatives. With smaller conference clubs like Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina not getting looks in the top four throughout the 2020 season, the conversation of expanding the CFP has been brought up again.
Would College Football benefit from expanding its already traditional set of four teams to eight?
On The Fan Morning Show Wednesday, Jeff Rickard and Big Joe Staysniak had a lively debate on the topic. Both guys have differing opinions, as Rickard would like to see an expanded playoff and Big Joe likes it as it is.
“Teams like Indiana are the guys getting screwed over,” Rickard said. “My problem with the College Football Playoff isn’t that Ohio State can beat any team in the country, I don’t doubt that. The system is set up to where four or five teams get the benefit of the doubt as long as they don’t have major slip ups along the way.”
With Florida losing to a mediocre LSU team this past weekend, the Gators only hope to possibly stay alive is to beat Alabama in the SEC Championship. Many teams across the country will be rooting for Ohio State to lose to Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship here in Indy. And what will happen if Notre Dame ends up beating Clemson again in the ACC Title Game?
A lot is left to be answered.
Big Joe’s side of the argument is the smaller conference teams that the committee fades should use bowl games to their advantage.
“Typically what happens with teams like Cincinnati is you do well where you belong,” Big Joe said. “They beat South Florida and they didn’t win a game all year. That’s a joke of a conference. It’s what bowl games are for. That’s where you prove you deserve to be in there. Whip the pants off of someone in the SEC like Georgia.”
You can catch the full conversation below. The first 14 or so minutes of the clip features the entertaining and very informative debate.
https://omny.fm/shows/jeff-and-big-joe/best-of-the-fan-morning-show-wednesday-12-16-a-hea
Tune into The Fan Morning Show weekdays from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM.
