The College Football ER has never seen a day like that. presented by: @renasant

After thinking about it for 24 hours, more @CFBPlayoff reax: It seems like the overwhelming reaction has been negative. I get it, in a way. A 24-team playoff has been a certainty for a while. Maybe it was the reality of it that drew the criticism from what I’d say to be about 80% social media. I respect that reaction. That said, what did you expect? Twenty-four teams were coming whether it was 2027 or some future date. FCS has had a 24-team playoff for years. It works. It’s exciting. I know, I know. There is little comparison between FBS and FCS, big picture. Asking future NFL stars to put their bodies on the line (more on that later) vs. the best of the Missouri Valley is two different things. But it’s not like this is happening in a vacuum. It was inevitable. —The most common reaction is that expansion devalues the regular season. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is staking his decades as a television executive that the exact opposite is true. From the time he took office 3 1/2 years ago, his intent was to improve the Big Ten brand. Specifically, he wanted more meaningful November football games. This does that. You might not want to see an 8-4 Iowa in the bracket but its mid-November game against Maryland (for example) now would take on added importance. Same for Minnesota. Purdue, if it gets hot (which it is right now). —This is a long-term play. Because the regular-season will be enhanced with more meaningful non-conference games and more meaningful conference games as the season progresses, the SEC and Big Ten — who made this decision to expand, no one else — becomes MORE interesting. At least that’s what the Power Two are banking their decision on. And by long-term, I’m talking about 2031 or thereabouts when the next media rights negotiations are upon us. The 24-team expansion accomplishes two good things: The SEC will get the most teams in over time. The Big Ten knows it and is OK with it. But expansion also furthers the current Cinderella trend that was an unintended consequence that emerged out of the Alston decision, NIL and the transfer portal. Indiana isn’t possible without Curt Cignetti being able to weaponize the portal to the field for winning football. That remains the secret sauce that Texas A&M is still struggling to achieve but that UCLA — with another James Madison disciple in charge — may have perfected this season. For almost its entire history the main stakeholders of college football have never embraced the Cinderella. Remember those back room bowl deals done in October? The MAC champion wasn’t usually in the conversation. A G6 program can get in. Not only that but make a run. It WILL happen. And who cares if it doesn’t? The MAC champion taking LSU to the fourth quarter beats the pants off playing in the Quick Lane Bowl. —The bowls were in a slump to begin with. Does expansion impact their viability? Absolutely. Some bowls will die out but they were going to anyway. Folks will still watch. It’s programming. All the bowls got at least 1 million viewers last season. I’m not going to lose sleep over whether the Music City Bowl gets the fourth- or fifth-place SEC team. —Expansion is largely about access. It’s not a money play. The conferences will be made whole for giving up their conference champ games and perhaps make a little more. But this is about getting more teams in, which enhances the brand, the value of which is then realized in 2031. Petitti deserves credit. His vision is reflected on the current MLB postseason. Now that the Brewers are in the World Series, the players association case is being made in the argument over a salary cap. The World Series is assured of having a team in it no higher than 19th in payroll. It’s a salary argument that the MLBPA will, again, by the way because it always has. How can the owners plead poverty when the likes of the White Sox, Guardians and Brewers have cracked that player development code much like Cignetti did at Indiana. Speaking of players association, one troubling aspect of expansion is the lack of player representation. In this new configuration, basically, everyone who deserves to play for a national championship will be in. The discourse will no longer be splitting hairs between Notre Dame and Miami (like last year). It will be between an 8-4 SEC school against a 9-3 Big 12 school. In a way, you can’t make a bad decision. Such a decision certainly won’t leave a deserving team (of consequence) out of the mix. —The blue bloods will still rule the bracket. I’ve seen viewpoints that the likes of Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia will have their spots “preordained.” Maybe. But how is that anty different than now? Answer: Not much. But here’s the charm. A program like Missouri would have been in a 24-team playoff at least twice in the last three seasons. I think I saw that Mississippi State would have been in three times since 2014. Those programs' fans would lose their minds over entry in one playoff. You better believe, there are a gaggle of others not labeled blue bloods. That's a heck of a good thing. —If you remember, at the beginning of this year a 24-team playoff was a non-starter, at least with the SEC. What changed? Something tells me that the SEC was able to adopt a ninth conference game because coaches/ADs/presidents were sold on an expanded playoff making it “affordable” for SEC schools to lose that extra game. Well, that and ESPN finally ponied up extra money to pay for that extra game. As glorious and traditional as the SEC champ game is, ask Kirby Smart if he needed to validate his postseason credentials by winning a game that didn’t have to be played. As time went on and looked like the 12-team playoff would stay as is, that had to turn up the heat in the SEC. Question that was making its way around the conference: Why did we add a ninth game and hurt our chances if the bracket wasn’t going to expand? Well, it did, with the SEC’s blessing because that ninth conference game had to make sense. Now it does. —Any playoff that gets us further away from the human element is a good thing. The amount of poll wrangling and mismanagement that went on over the years was almost criminal. It was only a couple of years ago than undefeated champion from the ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE was left out (Florida State). I said it at the time, when did the ACC become the Mountain West? That was the first time I thought the playoff wasn’t credible when one of the four best teams was left out. And when something isn’t credible, it dies in the public’s eyes. Look at the NFL injury report and the reason college football adopted it. It validates the gambling culture. We’ll walk you through it: If you don’t know the injuries, wise guys can manipulate the point spread at the least and, at worst, manipulate the outcome. Believe me, it has happened. cbssports.com/college-footba… The less humans involved, the better. The CFP selection committee had lately been openly criticized by commissioners. As pointed out Thursday, with a 24-team playoff if you’re ranked, you’re basically in. —The sport is still massively undervalued. Dan Wetzel makes great points here. xitter.cf/DanWetzel/status/21111… —One of the biggest wins in the expanded field goes to ESPN. It had to retain the exclusive rights for the CFP once the 30-day negotiating window began to expire. The new deal essentially stiff arms uber-rival Fox from the sport’s postseason. The Big Ten’s biggest rights holder goes dark (essentially) after the regular season. I’m sure the idea of Fox showing the SEC champion (or any SEC school) in a playoff game had to play into ESPN’s decision. —ESPN has the exclusive rights but no doubt (imo) will sell off several early-round games. That will help the bottom line with the price of the CFP going up halfway through the contract. Now that Skydance owns CBS, Paramount+, TNT, TBS and WMD, whether games end up on broadcast television other than ABC. —The possibility now exists of teams playing 17 games, equal to an NFL season. Put another way: That’s a bunch of 18-year-olds putting their young bodies (including heads) on the line to play a sport where it’s been proven that less contact means less a chance of CTE. Point being, just like the Protect College Sports Act, players had no say in this expansion discussion. When the PCSA fails — and it will — we’ll be further along to player representation and collective bargaining. You want sustainability? That’s sustainability. I’m calling it 10 years or so before we have it. It’s inevitable. By that time part of the revenue from a 32-team playoff will be negotiated and go directly to the players. Who’s in? More like, are YOU in? -30-

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