No risk, only upside: Why I've come around on College Football Playoff expansion

I've got fantastic news for every college football coach, athletics director, university president, and conference commissioner. Turns out, you actually can have your cake and eat it too.

After coming out staunchly against expanding the College Football Playoff beyond 12 teams ever since the plan to radically alter the sport's postseason was introduced last year, I have come to the realization that I was wrong and you were right. I simply hadn't considered the issue from all angles, and for that I apologize. After consulting with economists, philosophers, psychologists and even Biblical scholars, I have come to the realization that expanding the bracket to six times its previous size within a five-year period actually carries zero downside risk with limitless upside potential. 

For instance, I recognize this is a trying time to fund an athletics department for even the richest of the rich, and so it's incumbent upon ADs and presidents to turn over every rock in search of new revenue. I get it. And doubling the Playoff field would absolutely lead to an explosion of television rights, which would solve every problem and the decades-long trend of college athletics spending rising hand-in-hand with revenue would vanish overnight if only this new revenue stream could be tapped. Just a few extra couple hundred million per year into the system, and all your problems would vanish. You're just one new contract away, I can feel it.

I know what you're thinking, and the answer is yes: Network executives are salivating at the thought of paying more in rights fees to include 12 new teams that, by definition, are worse than the worst teams currently in the 12-team field. The nation simply salivates at the thought of watching 8-4 Iowa, ranked 23rd in the final 2025 CFP rankings, play 10th-ranked Miami for the right to face Texas A&M in the Round of 16. Come to think of it, how are we even sure Indiana's national title was legitimate if 21st-ranked Houston, 22nd-ranked Georgia Tech and 23rd-ranked Iowa weren't included in the bracket? Earn it on the field, Hoosiers! Ratings for that hypothetical Iowa vs. Miami matchup would make the 18 million for a 1 vs. 2 Big Ten Championship, and the 17 million for a pedestrian SEC title game, look embarrassing by comparison. 

Some people are worried that expanding the Playoff to 24 would water down the unique urgency of the college football regular season. Those people are morons. The stakes of watching a 9-2 team battle to make the 12-team field and a 7-4 team try to be the last team in a 24-team field are exactly the same. Fans won't notice the difference. Think of how many more teams can stay in the race if you stopped foolishly restricting championship access to only the best teams. The college football public wants a 5-4 Nebraska involved in the Playoff hunt for as long as possible. 

You may have seen online polls with approval of a 24-team CFP field hovering below 10 percent. Ignore them. We all know online polls are unscientific. AI bots from Pakistan are probably voting down the 24-team option. And even if they were real, it still wouldn't matter. The customer is usually always right, but not this time. In this one specific case, you -- the AD, the college president, the conference commissioner -- know better. You get paid the big bucks, remember, not them. You tell your customers what they want, not the other way around. Those idiots will gobble up anything you serve them!

Galatians 6:7 says a man will always reap what he sows but, after consulting with theologians I've been informed that the Apostle Paul's original text included a specific carve out for this issue and this issue alone. College football leaders are officially free and clear to sow, sow, and sow some more into perpetuity, eternally freed from any possibility of reaping. Yes!

I'm writing this one day after the American Football Coaches Association formally recommended expanding the Playoff to the "maximum number of participants." "We'd like to have more access," executive director Craig Bohl told ESPN. And while it is true that lowering the bar for CFP access would make it easier for coaches and ADs across the board to achieve their bonuses and obtain that next contract extension, it turns out that the short-term desires of individuals and the long-term best interest of college football as a whole are perfectly aligned. How convenient! God is good! They say what's good for the goose is good for the gander and, in this once instance, the goose happens to be golden and he cannot be killed.

I previously assumed coaches got paid the big bucks because they were gladiators in high-stakes hand-to-hand combat, but I know realize that was erroneous. Coaches should be free to make $10 million a year with no pressure at all. Right now, "making the playoffs" is the baseline signifier of a good season for the top echelon programs in college football, and psychologists assure me that fans won't adjust their expectations when the CFP field expands. Making the 24-team bracket is a similarly worthy accomplishment as making the current 12-team bracket, and I'm confident the public will recognize that. Remember, they're idiots who take their marching orders from you! Just ask Hubert Davis. He made the College Basketball Playoff four times in five seasons, and North Carolina fans adore him. Every single fan base should feel the rush of hearing their favorite team's name called on Selection Sunday, every single season. If it makes them happy and makes coaches more secure in their jobs, why not? 

I hope all coaches, administrators, presidents and executives can find it within themselves to accept this sincere apology and forgive me. I'm just simply not as wise as you, and I understand that now. The risks are overblown if they're even real at all, and I wasn't aware the laws of gravity do not apply to you and you alone. I think there will be no collateral damage from doubling the College Football Playoff field just a few short years after tripling it from its previous size, and in fact I think you'd be fools not to follow through with it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to an appointment. I'm meeting with my nutritionist, and I'm expecting he'll tell me I can eat cake for breakfast every morning and still have six-pack abs. Wish me luck!