Over the past few months, there have been several meetings by the College Football Playoff committee on whether or not there will be an expansion of the current four-team playoff bracket in place. It seems that they have ultimately come to a decision for the time being.
Reports came out Friday morning that the committee would announce that it is continuing as a four-team playoff throughout the duration of the current contract, which is set to expire following the 2026 season.
That news became official soon after.
https://twitter.com/NicoleAuerbach/status/1494703027126681601
This decision has been met with plenty of criticism from those who were hoping to see expansion sooner rather than later.
Damn. More teams are coming. Just not as soon as hoped. https://t.co/0HqYgEQuc1
— Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) February 18, 2022
Wow. What a colossal waste of time. https://t.co/mLRzEMeuvd
— Dom Izzo (@DomIzzoWDAY) February 18, 2022
A possible expansion has also had its fair share of critics, including Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Saban said back in January that he believed an expansion would further diminish bowl games and lead to even less competitive playoff games.
A major point against a possible expansion would be this year’s playoff matchup between Alabama and Cincinnati. While it was a great story to see the non-power five conference team make it to the playoffs, there was a very clear disparity in talent as Alabama easily handled them. We would most likely only see more of that going forward if there were to be an expansion.
The flip side is that we might just have to get used to seeing SEC teams play one another in the playoff for the time being.
It is still a pretty surprising decision from the committee. You would imagine that there would be a big revenue jump all across the board if there were to be an expansion to an 8- or 12-team playoff.
It remains to be seen if and when we will see an expansion going forward, but the blue-bloods of the college football world such as Alabama and Georgia have to be happy about the reports that came out today.