Several numbers are out there as far as how big the next expansion of the College Football Playoff could be. The total for Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, as he said this morning at the podium, is 30 teams playing to be in a field.
Drinkwitz was asked for his thoughts on CFP expansion while at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Thursday. He added it up and, with auto-bids from play-in games, 30 teams would be involved in his playoff model, which he thinks is what’s best for college football.
“My math could be wrong here, but if we did the 12, okay, and you had four automatic qualifiers? Everybody thinks that’s limiting. It’s not limiting if you think about it from, you take those four automatic qualifiers and you divide that into eight opportunities, of eight play-in games,” Drinkwitz explained. “Now you’re thinking, the SEC is playing in for eight, the Big Ten is playing in for eight. Since we’ve expanded the bubble to 16, give three to the Big 12, three to the ACC, one, one.”
“Now you’ve got 30 teams, 30 teams. Now you’re talking about an opportunity for 30 teams, 30 fan bases to be excited and engaged, engaged in giving revenue. You’ve got 30 teams with players who have access to compete for a championship,” Drinkwitz said. “So, for me, I think that makes a lot more sense.”
Drinkwitz would go on to compare their postseason to what the pros have in their playoff format. He doesn’t feel the current discussions about expansion are expansive enough based on how few teams, at least percentage-wise, are actually making the field at a dozen. However, with play-in games, it would make collegiate football play out a little bit more like how the playoff race unfolds in the NFL.
“When you think about it, whether it’s 12, 14, or 16? You know, to me, if we’ve decided to go into this expansion of playoffs and we’re trying to follow an NFL model? Well, the NFL takes 44% of their teams in order to get into the playoffs, to increase or the passion or to keep the fanbase engaged,” noted Drinkwitz. “If we’re talking about 12? That’s 9%. If we’re talking about 14? That’s 11%. If we’re talking about 16? That’s 12%. That’s really not changing the math for the fanbase. So, I really don’t understand what the big fight is about.”
“Again, when you’re talking about the NFL playoff system? Not only is it 14 teams but you only have to be the best out of your four-team division, so you’ve got to compete against four teams to make the playoffs. You know, again, if you’re at the University of Missouri, you say, hey, you just have to finish in the top eight to have a chance to play in the playoffs? That’s a win every day and I’m all for that. I think that’s awesome.”
In the end, Drinkwitz thinks this is what’s best for the most important people in the sport being the players for and the fans of the teams across the game. He thinks this would allow more of them to believe in their chances to compete for or win a national title at their respective program.
“When I think about college football right now and I think about what we need to do, I think it really comes down to two things – what’s best for our players and what’s best for our fans,” Drinkwitz stated. “The rest of us are only really important because of the players and the fans.”
“In my viewpoint of it, I think we should go back and try to find more ways to include teams,” Drinkwitz said. “How do we get more people involved? Because that’s better for the players. That’s better for the player experience to have more people involved in the potential to play for a championship. And it’s better for the fanbases.”
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