The College Football Playoff How Many Teams

NOTE: It sounds like I am complaining about this all being about money.  That is not the intent.  I am all for them making as much money as they can.  I would like it if they would pass some of it around but not gonna happen.

The Bowl system served College Football very well for a long time.  The Champion was subjective but everyone got a lot of exposure and there was a lot of money to go around.  With pressure from fans and outside sources and the prospect of even more money.  College Football cracked and the BCS was created in 1998.  For 15 years the BCS was the way that the College Football Champion was crowned.   It really worked very well and a lot of money was made.  There were a few questionable results but for the most part it was pretty accurate.  However this was not enough.  Everyone wanted more and saw that more money could be made so in 2013 the College Football Playoff was created.  Last year (21014) during the first year of the College Football Playoff more people watched the Championship game than any other program that was only on cable television, ever.

If you are making money hand over fist why stop there when there is another buck to be made.  The rankings for the College Football playoff are going to come out for the first time this year on Tuesday the 3rd of November.  It is going to be a live televised event on ESPN.  Why?  Well of course because there is money to be made.  People will watch.  The talking heads will talk and the debate will begin.  Of course none of this even means anything.  It is just a list of teams in a prepared order.  With the meat of the College Football season still to come.  So this ranking really means nothing other than to serve as a barometer of how the committee sees the teams.  I am not opposed to this I just don’t see the point in putting out this poll this early in the season.  Of course there is probably someone out there that is already making a poll for how the teams should be ranked next year.

Since this is all about money under the guise of giving the people a true champion I say why stop at 4 teams.  If you are going to do this do it right.  There is a breaking point where there would be too many teams and the playoff would be unplayable.  I see this at 8 teams.  You would have the 5 champions from the major conferences.  The ACC, SEC, B1G, Pac-12 and Big 12.  That way no conference is left out.  The last 3 teams would be the responsibility of the committee.  The teams can be from the major 5 or from the pool of the other conferences.  The committee would also be responsible for the seeding of the teams.  This format would be an event that could one day rival the NFL Playoffs in terms of popularity and the Championship game would more than likely end up being the second highest rated show on TV every year after the Super Bowl.

Maybe this is the long term plan that they have had all along.  I would like to think that it was my idea and that they will read this and go WOW why didn’t we think of that.