We’re only a day away from Alabama and Clemson playing for the national championship. The Crimson Tide knocked off No. 4 Washington 24-7 in the Peach Bowl and the Tigers stomped No. 3 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. The matchup Monday night in Tampa might have been different if the playoff field were larger than four teams.
With there being five “power” conferences and only four playoff spots, many fans are wanting to see a larger field that allows for all the conference champions as well as at-large teams. College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock, however, doesn’t foresee any future expansion.
“Based on the fact that our leadership hasn’t discussed it, I don’t see any change,” Hancock told Chris Hummer of 247Sports in Tampa.
Expansion would involve starting from scratch. From Hancock’s point of view, the current arrangement of four teams is working well.
“I don’t sense any groundswell at all among leadership for change,” Hancock said. “But it would require starting all over with a new contract. But our team is very happy with how this has gone and very happy with the four-team format.”
The blowout loss by the Buckeyes had fans of teams like Penn State and Oklahoma, both champions of their respective conferences, crying foul over being left out of the final four. Hancock doesn’t see an issue with the fifth team feeling left out, saying the issue will exist no matter the format.
“The disappointment that team five feels would be the exact same disappointment that team nine feels, there wouldn’t be any change in that,” Hancock said. “More so to me, it’s about the regular season, our regular season is so compelling. I don’t think our leadership would do anything to diminish the regular season. We wouldn’t want any game at the end of the season to be a game where a team rested its players.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
