With the 12-team College Football Playoff in its second year, after only including four teams for the 10 years before that, many have different feelings about the new format and qualification requirements.
The bulk of the college football community, including Brady Magee ’27, felt that there were often more than just four teams that deserved a spot in the playoffs, and expanding the field would resolve this problem and put less pressure on the committee.
“I really didn’t like how teams like Florida State got left out in 2023,” Magee said. “They arguably had just as good of a shot as any of the top four teams to win the natty, but their season was ended by the committee.”
Along with limiting tough decisions, Ben Showalter ’26 likes how allowing more teams in creates more opportunities for some teams that wouldn’t have otherwise had a shot at the national championship.
“It gives more teams a chance,” Showalter said. “Last year, a non-top-four team won, and one day there will probably be a group of five team that is good enough to win, and not letting them in because of their strength of schedule would be doing them a disservice.”
However, there are some drawbacks to the 12-team format, especially regarding the conference championship games. Social studies teacher Kevin Minor doesn’t love how the championships are affecting the 12-team field.
“I think it has diminished conference championships a little bit,” Minor said. “And I wonder what the benefit is anymore for teams in a top conference like the Big 10. If you’re Ohio State and you lose to Indiana, now Ohio State gets knocked out of a bye. Also, I don’t like that Duke wins the ACC and doesn’t get in. So what’s the point?”
The introduction of bye weeks for the top four seeds has been a somewhat agreed-upon negative of the 12-team playoff, after the top four teams have gone 1-7 the last two years. It was supposed to be a rewarding rest week, but it might actually be hurting the higher seeds.
“They need to get rid of the bye weeks,” Showalter said. “The top four seeds are usually coming right off a big conference championship win, and the bye week is causing them to lose their momentum going into their playoff game.”
Fans are searching for the right balance of giving a shot to the schools from smaller conferences, but also giving the teams that have beaten the best teams in the country all year what they deserve.
“The four-team playoff was too exclusive,” Minor said. “It gave too much preference to the SEC and Big 10 because people would say that their schedules were harder.
Overall, fans seem to think that the 12-team playoff is an improvement on the four-team playoff.
“I’m happier with the 12-team playoff,” Magee said. “It’s not perfect, but as a fan, it gives my team more of a chance to have a shot at the national championship, and as a fan of college football in general, I like that we get to watch more playoff games.”
