Tommy Hull
Staff Writer
With the new four team playoff rule put into motion during this College Football season, maybe it is time to we expand on this idea that has attracted so much positivity.
The 2014 season of College Football enforced a new rule that four teams rather than two will have the opportunity to compete for a National Championship by having playoffs.
Like before, the top teams were picked by the selection committee, but this year featured the first seed Alabama against the fourth seed Ohio State for the Sugar Bowl.
Second seed Oregon competed against the third seed Florida State for possession of the Rose Bowl. The two winners would go on to play the National Championship game a week later for who the best in the country really is.
Considering how it went this year, it could be time to consider making it an eight game playoff. First of all, it would obviously involve more teams. For the most part, people believed the selection committee was correct in picking the teams that were the first three seeds, but the fourth seed raised a lot of controversy. Some people thought it should have been Baylor, TCU or Mississippi State having an opportunity to compete for the Championship.
Although Ohio State proved to live up to expectations, upsetting Alabama, Skip Bayless—ESPN personality—voiced his opinion tweeting: “TCU just got all-time burned. Fell from No. 3 to No. 6 while doing exactly what it was supposed to, blow out a bad team in final game???”
If the playoff is moved to eight teams, then these teams all make it, plus Michigan State. Also, if it were to be Top eight, the seventh and eighth seeds were two game losers all year while everyone else in the top 19 had three losses.
This year it would have had a lot less controversy, and if a team has a bad game once or twice, or their opponent comes out and has the best game of the year, it will have to be earned in the playoffs with the champion—no matter what conference they are in— and must beat three of the top eight in the nation to capture the honor.
Another reason would be for money. According to ESPN’s Josh Krulewitz, the Rose Bowl had 28.2 million viewers, and the Sugar Bowl had 28.3 million which were the “most-watched shows in cable TV history!” Expanding on this could even increase the ratings of what is the most popular sport in America, making even more money and more teams satisfied.
The NCAA was absolutely right in making a bigger playoff picture, but I think making it even bigger and adding one extra week would be worth it to teams.
It would take a little more pressure off of the all parties involved, and still having a couple weeks off would be a blessing for player recovery.