ESPN college football guru Kirk Herbstreit appeared on Colin Cowherd’s The Herd radio show to talk about the upcoming season today. Much of the segment was devoted to the idea of expanding the four-team playoff to an eight-team field.

Both agreed that the move is inevitable, but Herbstreit maintained that more controversy will be needed before anything occurs.

Herbstreit said the following:

I would be shocked if it doesn’t eventually get to eight. I’ve kind of always felt that way. Once they went to four, I felt there was a pretty strong possibility that it would go to 8.

Now, If you talk to Urban Meyer and some of these coaches that had to coach and not just 12 regular season games but a conference championship game, then you go into your bowl game and the final four and then another game after that .. if you were to throw another one on top of that, you would hear these coaches talk about we can’t survive playing this many games. These teams are mentally and physically beaten up. But I think if you put that to the side, it’s inevitable. I think that’s where it’s trending.

Right now we have five power conferences. One of them is going to be left out. Imagine if one year, two teams from one league go and you have possibly two of these power five [conferences] left out. Eventually you’re going to have enough teams get kind of shortchanged kind of like TCU and Baylor last year – if that happens to an Alabama or a Ohio State or a USC – you’re going to find some people that will make enough noise that eventually I think it will go to 8. But I think you’re going to need more controversy. I don’t think one or two or three years will be enough. I think you’re going to need more than that actually.

Controversy, of course, helped bring about the four-team playoff to college football.

As SEC fans know, the Alabama vs. LSU BCS Championship Game was a major catalyst in killing the BCS and moving to the four-team playoff.