Why The College Football Playoff Needs More Teams Involved
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - JANUARY 20: Head coach Ryan Day and JT Tuimoloau #44 of the Ohio State Buckeyes hoist the trophy after beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 34-23 in the 2025 CFP National Championship at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 20, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesI’ve been previewing plenty of football betting odds the last few weeks, but in college football, there is one big question looming over the entire sport.
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How many teams should the playoff have?
College football has always struggled to do something that every other sport figured out eons ago. That is figuring out the champion is. You might be old enough to remember – like me – when the whole thing was decided by (gasp) media polls at the end of the season. Before that, bowl games were showcases and the champion was picked before the bowls.
Now, almost every bowl game is irrelevant, but that’s a different issue spelled “transfer portal.”
Think of college football today as fractured fiefdoms where geography used to matter. The Big 8 used to matter. Heck, there used to be a Big 8. The SEC used to matter. The Big 10 definitely mattered. Heck, there was even a brief period of time when the Big East had football and they mattered too. Now all those fiefdoms have cracked or merged or disappeared completely like the Pac-12.
There is no one single person in charge of college football. We have no czar, no commissioner. What we do have is plenty of people competing for their own interests and piece of the pie (read: money….it’s always about money).
But now we do have playoffs. Last year it was 12 teams. There’s talk among those fiefdom rulers that it should be more teams.
Traditionalists for the sport say that more is bad and we can’t have the Michigan/Ohio State regular season game not mean anything anymore!! (Or whatever rivalry game you love).
I have bad news for you. Expanding the playoff is coming. And expanding the playoff is also correct.
Do The Playoff Math
Last year there were 138 FBS teams (Football Bowl Subdivision – one bad thing about not having one person in charge is that you get these terrible, clunky names) and 12 made the playoffs. That’s 8.7 percent of the teams.
In the FCS division (Football Championship Subdivision – again, horrible name) there are 128 teams and the NCAA has a very credible 24-team playoff. That’s 18.75 percent of the teams who get in.
SPARTANBURG, SC - DECEMBER 02: Brandon Goodson (14) quarterback Wofford College Terriers hands off the football against the Furman University Paladins in the FCS playoff game, Saturday, December 2, 2017, at Gibbs Stadium in Spartanburg, South Carolina. (Photo by David Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesNCAA Basketball has 365 Division 1 teams. The tournament is 68 teams. That’s 18 percent of the schools make it.
Since college football has now become NFLite, let’s look at how the professional guys do their playoffs. All come close or exceed 50 percent. The NFL has 32 teams. 14 make the playoffs. The NHL has 32. 16 teams make the playoffs. The NBA has 30 teams, 16 make the playoffs, but with that whole Play-In Tournament thing, it’s really 20. MLS has 30 teams and 18 make the playoffs.
If you took 18 percent of 138 FBS teams, you get 24 teams. That should be the number of teams in the CFB playoff. Maybe that should have always been the number.
College football can’t do the professional thing of 50 percent. No one wants a 64-team college football playoff, right? 32? Hey, that might also work. You get five rounds, playing through late December and January. Hmm, four college football quarterfinals on New Year’s Day isn’t the worst idea is it?
As a fan, you might be saying, we don’t want this. We didn’t ask for this. And you’re right.
You’re also not the one making the decision. The fiefdom leaders want to make money. TV networks want the viewers and the games to put on. Believe me when I say the gambling markets want the inventory of college football games to bet on. No one wants less.
Bigger Can Be Better
I used to wonder if football just didn’t lend itself to a tournament-style bracket because of its once-a-week games, but that’s out the window.
And here’s what the fan is missing about expanding the college football playoff. Again, this may be hard to hear. It works.
The NFL is the greatest sports product on this side of the ocean (that EPL is pretty good you know) and 32 fan bases, except maybe Cleveland, believe that their team has a chance to contend in 2026. Maybe not win a Super Bowl, but make a run at a division title? Maybe get in the playoffs?
We’ve been conditioned to think that college football is different, but it was never different. It was amateur (hey now, there’s a word that never used anymore) football played for big money and high stakes. It’s just that the players themselves weren’t being properly compensated. Those fiefdom Lords were making out like bandits.
Now players are being compensated under the pretense of NIL dollars.
A bigger college football playoff levels the playing field. Michigan/Ohio State is great, no doubt. But why can’t Indiana/Purdue matter too? At least, some of the time. Same for Miami/Georgia Tech? Why can’t fans at Oregon State or Cal or TCU or Wake Forest believe they might have a shot at making the playoffs?
Interest in college football remains high in certain locations and will forever remain that way, just like everyone always wants to know about the Dallas Cowboys or New York Yankees or LA Lakers.
College football has marquee franchises, but every Cowboys/Eagles NFL game matters plenty to the fan bases whether their teams are in the playoffs or not. Michigan/Ohio State will sell out. So will Auburn/Bama. Trust me.
A bigger college football playoff may look weird and be hard to swallow at first, but the proof is that over time all it does is increase interest in the sport overall. Whether or not college football is the same sport it used to be is the real issue.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com