We’ll have plenty of time to lament what once was, but rather than turn toward the future with a countenance of despair, below is our attempt at spinning a 24-team playoff field into a positive. (We all cope in our own ways.)
Here are seven reasons why we’ve stopped worrying and learned to love (more like accept) CFP expansion.
Eliminates conference championships
Before the CFP began, we would have scoffed at getting rid of conference championship weekend. But the last decade-plus has changed our tune. It’s never sat right that teams good enough to play an extra game could be punished for losing in a conference title game while idle fringe playoff teams benefit from sitting at home. This will at the very least remove that foolish quirk, giving every team the same number of games to state their playoff case.
Rewards more teams for strong seasons
The idea that a 24-team playoff opens the door for mediocrity isn’t accurate.
Since 2021, 83.3 percent of the 60 teams ranked Nos. 13-24 in the final CFP poll won at least nine regular-season games. Of those 60 programs, 25 (41.7 percent) had at least 10 wins entering Selection Sunday.
An expanded field won’t mean 7-5 teams will all of a sudden flood the national title conversation, but rather teams with seasons worth celebrating.
More fresh blood
Sure, a field double in size means blue bloods such as Ohio State and Alabama might never miss the playoff, but it also ensures plenty more teams that may have always been on the outside looking in during the 12-team era will get a crack at the CFP experience.
Some of the teams that would have made the Playoff for the first time in program history over the past five years had a 24-team field been in place include Wake Forest (No. 17), which had the country’s fourth-ranked scoring offense in 2021 while going 10-3. Oregon State (No. 14) would have qualified in 2022, with 2024 Heisman winner Travis Hunter at Colorado (No. 23, 2024) and the Diego Pavia-led Vanderbilt Commodores (No. 14, 2025) following soon after.
Slow starts no longer insurmountable
Before playoff expansion, a team could be the hottest in the country over the second half of the season, and it wouldn’t matter if it had a .500 win percentage over the first half of its schedule.
Those programs still have a chance in a 24-team field.
Take the previously mentioned Oregon State team, for example. It started the 2022 season 3-2 but went 6-1 over its final seven games, including a win over then-No. 10 Oregon in the regular-season finale. Or how about 2024 South Carolina, which outscored its final six opponents (all wins) by an average of 20.4 points per game after a close loss to Alabama dropped it to 3-3?
With the constant roster turnover of the transfer portal era, the best teams don’t always reveal themselves immediately. Providing more seats at the table could allow the cream to rise to the top.
More meaningful late-season games
This ties to our last point. Even if just an illusion, playoff expansion offers teams a glimmer of hope, turning that once irrelevant late-season game between three- and four-loss Big Ten teams into one with playoff ramifications.
We’ll always miss the days where a single loss carried significant consequences, but that also left plenty of teams with little to play for over the final month of the season. Expansion changes that.
Keeps fan bases engaged
Not only is keeping fan support high in-season important, but growing the playoff field may also be crucial to activating fan bases during the offseason.
As NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico recently questioned in Front Office Sports’ “Tuned In” summit on Tuesday, fatigue may soon settle in for fans and donors at some programs, but an increase in playoff spots could lead to a reinvigoration.
