awfulannouncing
As details emerge about the College Football Playoff's expansion to 24 teams, it's clear that the move has little support. The Athletic reported this week that even ESPN, which holds broadcast rights for the entire tournament, did not favor the idea. Additionally, a Nielsen survey found that 90 percent of self-identified college football fans also opposed the expansion—a fact that CFP executive director Rich Clark acknowledged but chose to overlook this week. Nevertheless, the first 24-team bracket is scheduled to debut next winter.
ESPN's Dan Wetzel contends that by trying to build credibility through the weekly rankings show, the committee actually damaged its own credibility and felt compelled to expand to appease critics. "One of the reasons we expanded this Playoff is by doing these weekly rankings over the years. They absolutely killed the credibility of the committee," Wetzel said Wednesday on The College GameDay Podcast. "And so every week, these things come out, it's literally a half-baked pie, and then you let everybody tee off on you."
Wetzel elaborated that the weekly rankings invited relentless criticism from media members who thrive on outrage and from coaches who complain about a lack of respect. By opening its deliberations to public scrutiny, the committee may have exposed its own flaws. Beyond the complaints, even legitimate analysis of the rankings each week would highlight questionable arguments, as the week-to-week selection process is far less precise than a flashy rankings show suggests.
Wetzel believes the committee became so sensitive to criticism that it eventually accepted arguments from teams and conferences that used these imprecise rankings to claim more teams deserved a playoff spot. "There's an entire economy on ripping the hell out of the committee, which undermines the value of the committee and undermines that this Playoff isn't successful, and hence we need to expand the Playoff," Wetzel explained. "It was not an organized activity. It was actually a self-own by the Playoff people who wanted this to work. But you can draw a pretty quick line between deciding we're going to put out a half-baked ranking and why we went from a four-team Playoff to a 24-team Playoff in four short years. And part of it is they just allowed this to be smashed up, and it's like, who the hell cares where they're ranked right now? We'll find out."
Key Analysis
The committee does not seem to share Wetzel's view. The rankings will persist even under the 24-team format, though host Rece Davis acknowledged they need to be reimagined to avoid boring the audience with a long list of mediocre teams in the lower seeds. In its effort to spark conversation and be accountable, the CFP may have created a doom spiral that led to a result nobody truly wanted.
Originally reported by awfulannouncing.