Reflecting on the Very First Expanded College Football Playoff

With the crowning of Ohio State as the national champion Monday, it is a good time to look back and evaluate the very first expanded college football playoff bracket.  Sure, there was controversy – there is always disagreement over those last few seeds – and there were a few duds in the first round.  But overall, it was a good format with several exciting games, including the very last one between Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Ohio State, who won the playoff when it was first expanded in 2014, now has won it again after the second expansion.  The Buckeyes have been a post-season regular, appearing in six of the eleven playoffs since 2014, and in the years they did not make the cut, they were ranked between five and seven, so they were on the cusp of contention. Their decade of dominance is punctuated with this championship.

To get to the finals this year, Ohio State had to go through a gauntlet of competition, taking down Tennessee, undefeated Oregon, Texas, and Notre Dame.  These are teams who finished the regular season seventh, first, third, and fifth respectively in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Not only did Ryan Day’s team redeem themselves after an awful end-of-season loss to hated rival Michigan, but they also avenged an earlier loss to Oregon.  They beat four of the top seven teams in the nation over four consecutive weeks – an accomplishment that should be celebrated almost as much as winning it all.

The playoff, despite its blowouts and funky seedings, produced a quality tournament with a champion who earned it on the field.  As a college football fan, how could I be disappointed with that?  I can’t, because it was a great playoff.

Interestingly enough, if the playoff was not revised this year, Ohio State would not have been in the four-team field.  Notre Dame would have been excluded as well, as the Irish were slotted fifth in the CFP rankings on December 8 (despite holding the 3rd spot in the AP poll at that time).

It is a completely different post-season under the old system, with the CFP top four of Oregon, Georgia, Texas, and Penn State.  I doubt they would have finished in that order, though, as each semifinal would have been a rematch of the respective conference championship games, so I would have expected the rankings to have been cooked a little to swap Penn State and Texas.

Regardless of the order, though, the top four teams in the final playoff seedings were from the Big Ten and SEC – no surprise there – and the two finalists, Notre Dame and Ohio State, likely would have met in a New Year’s Day bowl for nothing more than bragging rights in a game that probably would have been marred by opt-outs.

Thank goodness that didn’t happen!

Interestingly, none of the top four teams made it to the final game, and thanks to the new system, those who finished the year just outside the top four earned their way into the championship (Notre Dame was 5 and Ohio State was 6).

Purists of the game might argue that those two teams lost their right to a national title when they suffered bad losses - Notre Dame to Northern Illinois, their only loss, and Ohio State to a then 6-5 Michigan team at home.  That is a fair point.

But who outside of the southeast and Midwest wanted to see rematches of the SEC and Big Ten title games for this year’s playoff?  Besides, many fans were tired of the selection controversies and the perceived bias in the rankings, so the time was right for expansion. 

Over the years, many good – and deserving - teams just missed the playoffs in a two or four team format, and this year proved to have more parity than we have seen in quite some time.  While this current format is over-expanded, it does ensure that the “best” teams are always going to be in the post-season competing for a national title.

Because there is a significant drop-off in talent and depth after the top six or eight programs, an expanded playoff unfortunately will include lopsided results.  It happens in all sports where the tournament has too many teams. 

March Madness is littered with blowouts in the first round, especially when 16-seeds play the top seeds.  Even the NFL can’t escape those kinds of games – five of six first-round playoff games this year were decided by two scores or more.

However, every now and then, David slays Goliath. Just ask UMBC basketball about their NCAA victory over top seeded Virginia, or Fairleigh Dickinson’s upset over #1 Purdue – those fanbases will talk about those wins forever.  So if a 12-seed ever beats the fifth best team in the country in a college football playoff, it will be epic.

We almost got that this year when Arizona State was a 4th and 13 stop away from knocking off Texas.  The Longhorns prevailed, but the double-overtime game was a great one to watch for any college football fans outside of the state of Arizona.  (And yes, I know Arizona State was seeded fourth, but their CFP rank was twelve.)

Twelve is too many.  The 12th seed in football – who might not even be close to being the 12th ranked team if they pulled an upset in their conference tournament like Clemson did – is extremely unlikely to ever win a national title.  If they were capable of winning four games against top ten teams, then they wouldn’t be ranked outside the top ten

Yet it is fun to see some of these underdogs have a chance to win a game or two, as well as to earn a reward for winning their conference championship. While an eight-team playoff is the best format for producing the most “good games,” an expanded twelve-team playoff allows the next tier of schools to get into the tournament and reap some benefits from a good year. 

As with anything new, there is a learning curve with this expanded playoff. The powers that be will likely reseed future brackets based on rankings to avoid the early blowouts by producing better-matchups in first round games.   

Had the seedings been based on CFP rankings this year, Indiana, SMU, Boise State, Tennessee, Arizona State, and Clemson would have played first round games – with four of these teams squaring off against each other.  That would have resulted in some fun first round pairings.

Although, some of those winners still would likely have been boat-raced in round two by top seeds, so the lopsided contests are not likely to disappear.

Even though all four teams with a first-round bye lost their first playoff game this year, I would still expect a reseeding. The extra week off – three weeks for some teams – resulted in rusty starts, as all four bye-week teams were down by double digits at halftime and could not dig out of the hole (even though Arizona State came awfully close). 

Will the top four teams want that bye next year after this year’s disastrous results?  They are probably getting it, because it just makes sense.  There is no way that top seeded Oregon should have played one of the toughest playoff teams in just the second round. 

Their reward for being the only undefeated team in the nation should have been a game against the winner of #8 Indiana and #9 Boise State.

The same is true for Georgia.  Winning the SEC and gaining the 2nd seed should have resulted in a week off and a matchup with the winner of #7 Tennessee and #10 SMU.

It is a different playoff if the automatic bye for conference champs did not exist and teams were seeded based on ranking.  Moving forward, seedings based on rankings should be the format of the CFP.

The first ever twelve-team expanded college football playoff is officially in the books, and it was quite a success.  Some early blowouts certainly detracted from the overall product, but it was still a very good tournament and I look forward to future playoffs.

Tweaks need to be made to the seedings, and the bracket is probably overexpanded, but this format allows the best and the most deserving to play for a title.  This is a far better version of any playoff we have ever seen at the FBS level of college football. 

There were multiple top-ten matchups, full stadiums, and almost a dozen games where it was win-or-go-home. This was the best consecutive three weeks of football we saw all season. For most college football enthusiasts, it was a satisfying made-for-TV (and Vegas?) event.  

I may not like the current landscape of out-of-control NIL payments and transfer portal activity, and the gap between haves and have-nots may be widening, but in the end, I still love college football.  The expanded playoff was a showcase of future NFL talent, and the games certainly satiated my huge appetite for the sport.

Let’s give credit where credit it due.  This was a great improvement to the game of college football.

• For the second straight year, the SEC was not represented in the final game. Only three SEC schools were in field and only one made it to the final four.  After basically dominating the playoffs and the BCS since 2006, has the SEC lost its spot at the top of the mountain?

   

• Actually, I have to correct myself – the SEC was indeed represented in the championship game…via the SEC referees!  I have no complaints about their performance, though, and I am especially glad that an ACC officiating crew was not on hand Monday night! 

   

• The decision to bring in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s youngest daughter Dr. Bernice A. King to the coin flip is one that deserves much praise.  The game was held on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, and this was a tremendous way to remember King and honor his work and his family.  However, many – including myself – are wondering why Bernice King didn’t actually flip the coin?  Even worse, after the head referee shook her hand, he just stepped in front of her and proceeded like she wasn’t even there.  Great idea, not so great execution of the idea.

• The playoff extended an already lengthy college football season.  While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I do think the season is too long. Ohio State and Notre Dame played 16 games each.  Had any conference championship game losers made it to the final, they would have played 17 games.  That is too many for college kids who have been on campus since July (or earlier).  The best way to shorten the season is to go back to 11 games and do away with conference championships, but I know that won’t happen because of the money they bring in. 

   

• Ohio State is still celebrating their victory, but the rest of the nation seems to have already moved on to next year.  ESPN released its way-too-early 2025 rankings, and – no surprise – they have Ohio State as favorites to repeat as champions.  The usual suspects fill out their top six: Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Georgia, and Oregon.

   

• Of course, way-too-early Heisman contender lists are out as well.   Arch Manning (Texas), Drew Allar (Penn State), and Grant Nussmeier (LSU) are a few leading quarterback names.  There is much talent at the position players on the list too, including receiver Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State) and running back Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame).  It does feel like a wide open race though.

   

• Finally, I will leave you with this thought…Fans are fickle.  Fan is short for “Fanatics,” right?  So if Ohio State loses to Michigan again next year, is Ryan Day on the hot seat?