iowastatedaily
The College Football Playoff is reportedly nearing an agreement to expand from its current 12-team format to a 24-team tournament, a move that would significantly alter the sport's postseason landscape. While proponents argue that more teams would have a shot at the national title, skeptics contend that such a change would undermine the very essence of college football.
With 24 playoff spots, more programs would be in contention, ostensibly increasing the stakes of regular-season games. However, critics caution that this would instead manufacture urgency and drama around mediocre teams. For instance, a late-season matchup between Wake Forest and Northwestern battling for the 24th seed would hardly be thrilling, especially when neither team is realistically capable of winning the championship.
Key Analysis
The 24-team proposal would grant more teams access to the postseason, but it would simultaneously strip monumental regular-season games of their significance. College football's allure lies in high-stakes clashes between powerhouses in October and November, where outcomes determine who advances and who stays home. Last week's Georgia-Alabama game serves as a prime example: Alabama's 20-17 loss leaves it with little margin for error, and Texas faces similar pressure after falling to Oklahoma. In a 24-team format, the stakes would vanish if teams know they can afford three losses and still make the playoffs.
Conversely, the 12-team format has proven superior to the previous four-team system. This season, Iowa's 5-1 start would have been irrelevant under the old format after its loss to Ohio State, but the Hawkeyes remain in contention. The four-team model worked in the pre-NIL era when only a handful of teams were genuine title contenders. Now, with NIL leveling the playing field, programs like Miami, Indiana, Texas Tech, and Ole Miss are on par with traditional powers Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. The pool of championship-caliber teams has grown to roughly 8-12, justifying the 12-team expansion.
A 12-team playoff strikes the right balance: it keeps more games meaningful for teams like Iowa, Mississippi State, Florida, UCLA, and Oklahoma State, while still punishing losses. Each week becomes a quasi-playoff game, and any slip-up can spell elimination. Last season, Notre Dame and Texas were left out, sparking controversy, but that is exactly how it should be. Good teams should miss the playoffs; the postseason should not be for everyone. There must be rewards for big wins and consequences for big losses—that is what makes the games matter.
A 24-team playoff would eliminate these high-stakes regular-season matchups and shift the drama to the postseason. College football is not college basketball, where the tournament is everything. It is a sport where every Saturday is filled with chaos, huge victories, and heartbreaking defeats. Expanding to 24 teams would kill some of the magic that makes college football unique.
Originally reported by iowastatedaily.