College football moving back to 11 game seasons? Kirk Herbstreit says that’s an idea being discussed in order to expand CFB Playoff
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For teams that make their conference championship game and the College Football Playoff, the reality is they most likely face a 15-game season to win a title. Any discussion of expanding the College Football Playoff has to consider that asking two college teams to potentially play a 16-game season, which seems borderline cruel.
Well, apparently, that’s something at least one college football power broker has considered and may have come up with a solution to that problem.
During a Wednesday appearance on ESPN program “Championship Drive,” college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit was asked to share his thoughts on Playoff expansion after Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany noted that an expansion to eight Playoff teams isn’t as imminent as many are making it out to be.
According to Herbstreit, the conference championship games across the nation would be a hurdle in any expansion discussion.
“I think it’s tricky because you have the conference championship games,” Herbstreit said. “I’ve talked with somebody who is very influential in that room and he brought up the idea of maybe going down to 11 regular season games, holding on to the conference championship games and still being able to eventually get to eight (College Football Playoff teams). That might be an idea.”
Is that something Herbstreit would support?
“I would love eight (teams in the Playoff), I wouldn’t have a problem with that,” he added.
Based on Herbstreit’s comment, it’s unclear how many power brokers actually support this idea, or if it’s just one person throwing out an idea, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
This may be an idea worth exploring if an expansion of the Playoff is inevitable, as asking teams to play 16 games in a single season may be too big of a hurdle to cross for the NCAA. Expect numbers to be run across the nation regarding the financial figures that may come if a regular season game is lost but the College Football Playoff is expanded.
As with every decision made by the NCAA, follow the money and you’ll have an outstanding idea of which way the organization is leaning.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
