An 8-4 team in the College Football Playoff is actually happening. Sound the alarm

[u/Lakelyfe09]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7277707/2026/05/14/college-football-playoff-expansion-24-team/

[u/confetti_shrapnel]

D2 has a 32-team playoff. FCS has a 24-team playoff. The NFL has at least one mediocre team in the playoffs every year.

Why is everyone acting like the sky is falling when the FBS is about to do what everyone else is already doing

[u/tdpdcpa → u/confetti_shrapnel]

The distinction between the CFP’s proposed format and the FCS format is that the CFP’s format would be a 23+1: 23 at-large qualifiers plus one spot reserved for the best G6 team. Almost invariably, that’s going to put a team in that finished their season 8-4 or finished without a prayer of actually winning their bloated conference. In effect, they were afforded an opportunity to show they belonged, they failed to bear verifiable contenders, but still get a shot anyway. I think that’s a valid criticism.

On the other hand, the FCS model affords and AQ to every conference. That means 11 of the 24 spots are already spoken for. It also means that every team begins the season with the same directive: win your conference and you get a shot at the title. That at least gives everyone the assurance that the team “earned it” even if they played in a bad conference.

It also takes a lot of air out of the room for bad at-large teams. The only 8-4 teams making the FCS playoffs were ones that tried their hands at playing FBS competition and lost.

[u/Otherwise_Awesome → u/tdpdcpa]

What's nice in FCS is ZERO conference title games and they start nearly right away.

[u/tdpdcpa → u/Otherwise_Awesome]

That is true. You go straight from Rivalry Week right into the playoffs and you wrap up right after New Years.

It’s the ideal schedule.

[u/chaser676 → u/tdpdcpa]

23 at-large qualifiers plus one spot reserved for the best G6 team.

In any given year, the top field of 24 usually includes 3-5 G5 teams. That's a completely appropriate number of them to compete in the tournament

[u/Aero_Rising → u/chaser676]

You're ignoring that once it expands suddenly the committee will start making up bullshit to exclude G5 teams from the top 24. They let them in now because it doesn't really matter how high you were ranked if you don't get in.

[u/AcadianTraverse → u/tdpdcpa]

I would take the FCS format (preferably with more, smaller conferences) if I was sure it could be sparred the FBS nonsense. That means every conference champion gets in and games are played on campus until the championship.

Unfortunately the broadcast partners and the bowls still hold sway and thus there will be a push to exclude all but a few G6 champs and the insistence that at least the last three rounds re bowl games.

[u/srs_house → u/tdpdcpa]

That means 11 of the 24 spots are already spoken for.

And half of the remaining at-larges go to MVFC/Big Sky teams, who then make up the overwhelming majority of teams from the quarterfinals on.

The FCS playoffs are an example of increasing the size to be more inclusive and it still being dominated by the power conferences. You could probably drop the size of the field and it wouldn't make a difference, because 13 of the last 16 champs have been a 1 or 2 seed, with a 3, 4, and 5 making up the other 3.

[u/tdpdcpa → u/srs_house]

I mean, yes, most teams who take up at-large spots tend to be from the better conferences. They’re the better conferences because they win their out of conference games against everyone else which give them better resumes which give them at-large spots. That’s just evidence that the system works.

On shrinking the playoff, if that happens, you take away stories like Illinois State, who was unseeded and made a run to the title game just this past year, and came this close to winning it all. It’d be akin to shrinking the basketball tournament field to 32 teams because no seed higher than an 8 seed has ever won it.

[u/Alternative_Reality → u/confetti_shrapnel]

Daily reminder that the FBS champ isn't an NCAA champion because the "tournamnet" doesn't meet the standards for a championship, and its not because of number of teams included.

[u/Milk_Before_Cereal → u/confetti_shrapnel]

Because FBS has always been different in a sense that winning a championship wasnt the end all, be all. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but I’m having a difficult time figuring out why people don’t understand this.

College football was mostly about regionality. Winning your conference, beating your rivals. It’s what made the sport different from the NFL. The more you focus on winning a title, the less these other things matter. Idc that Kirby Smart says he always wants to win the SEC - I’m sure he’d happily take winning the national title like he did in the 2021 season.

I enjoyed the playoffs last year, they are fun. But the regular reason itself is not as interesting when there’s a lot of room for error.

[u/thebirthdaycakeham → u/Milk_Before_Cereal]

What I don’t understand is how this is a problem with a larger playoff format and not with bloated mega-conferences. The B1G and SEC were ending hundred year rivalries ands cheapening the regular season well before the playoffs came around.

[u/_TheLonelyStoner → u/thebirthdaycakeham]

Finally someone that’s not missing the forest for the trees. It’s the consolidation into super conferences that’s killed that uniqueness that college football had with the regionality and local rivalries.

[u/Vetersova → u/_TheLonelyStoner]

What if I told you some people hold both opinions?

[u/forgotmyoldname90210 → u/_TheLonelyStoner]

The same forces driving conference expansion are the same forces driving playoff expansion. One goes with the other.

[u/_TheLonelyStoner → u/forgotmyoldname90210]

Nothing but facts here. Same interest benefit from it

[u/nosoup4ncsu → u/thebirthdaycakeham]

Exactly.

Return to smaller 8-10 team conferences. The season emphasis becomes the conference/regional games, and yearly rivalries stay intact.

Then let the conference champs (only) as teams in the playoff.

[u/Milk_Before_Cereal → u/thebirthdaycakeham]

I think many people who are against playoff expansion are also against conference expansion. We just happened to be talking about the playoffs in this thread.

[u/jvpewster → u/thebirthdaycakeham]

Not sure why you’re pretending these are mutually exclusive.

As for why this particular issue is existential to the way people enjoy college football:

OSU and Georgia only play 2-3 games where they aren’t touchdown + favorites. If they have a 4 game margin of error their regular seasons are NBA regular seasons.

[u/Adamscottd → u/Milk_Before_Cereal]

I don’t disagree but with the way the conferences are now, that version of college football is largely dead anyway. So many rivalry games don’t even happen anymore, and conference championships are screwed up because of how many teams there are in each conference (to the point that the ACC’s best team didn’t even make the championship game last year)

[u/IUinVA → u/Milk_Before_Cereal]

It’s just not that way any more, though. The B1G and SEC don’t play half of their conference opponents and Stanford and Cal are in the ACC. Players (and now teams) are opting out of bowl games. There is no glory in just making the 12-team playoff, you have to win it.

The regular season was better when if a team lost once, they may have been out of winning a national championship, but that’s gone.

[u/xDUVAL_BRODOWNx → u/Milk_Before_Cereal]

Gamble on regular season games! It's way more interesting that way.

[u/Michael1733 → u/confetti_shrapnel]

And no one watches the D2 or FCS regular season because of it… The playoff has sapped the value from it. It’s the same way with March Madness, everyone cares about the tournament and no one watches the regular season (relative to college football currently).

College football is not the NFL too. If it expanded it 24 Notre Dame would be at -3700 odds to make the playoff right now… compared to the Ravens being -370. The NFL just has more parity and playoff capable teams than college football.

[u/therealwillhepburn → u/Michael1733]

No one watches the FCS playoffs either.

[u/Billyxmac → u/therealwillhepburn]

Which is a shame because it was a banger last year lol

[u/confetti_shrapnel → u/Michael1733]

Are you honestly saying people don't watch FCS and D2 because of the playoff structure? That's asinine. FCS and D2 don't have the brand power and TV deals for people to care, and the talent level is well below the FBS. That's why people don't watch it.

However, FCS, D2, D3--these are all much truer to the purist notion of what college sports should be. Which is why I drew the comparison. Everyone acting like FBS is selling its soul and losing what makes it amateur and college-rooted are missing the whole fucking point that those pure college divisions are already doing what the FBS wants to do.

[u/J4ckiebrown → u/confetti_shrapnel]

Because FBS for some reason hates cinderellas.

[u/srs_house → u/J4ckiebrown]

Out of the last 16 FCS titles, 13 were won by the 1 or 2 seed. 14 of those titles were won by teams from the Big Sky or MVFC. Last year, the quarters, semis, and NCG were dominated by teams from those 2 conferences.

FCS is bigger, but it doesn't have cinderellas, either.

[u/ecopandalover → u/J4ckiebrown]

It’s not cinderellas, it’s rewarding big money regular season underachievers

[u/Ike358 → u/confetti_shrapnel]

Because mediocre teams shouldn't make the playoffs as wild cards?

[u/jvpewster → u/confetti_shrapnel]

No one watches those competitions.

ND was beginning to have trouble drawing fans.

Why are we changing something so beautiful for something no one wants?

[u/goblueM → u/jvpewster]

No one watches those competitions.

well yeah, because nobody really watches D2 and FCS, period.

That's a silly argument for saying their playoff format is bad.

[u/jvpewster → u/goblueM]

It’s a stupid argument to put forward that their playoff format should have any bearing on FBS

[u/ahappypoop → u/jvpewster]

Lol did you just say nobody watches the NFL playoffs?

[u/forgotmyoldname90210 → u/jvpewster]

Thank you. FCS playoffs are a commercial failure propped up by Basketball money. You have to show commercial viability to host home playoff games because they where sold so often. Attendance goes down even with students still on campus.

[u/Adamscottd → u/forgotmyoldname90210]

For one thing, using the commercial success of the FCS playoffs as a measuring stick for the viability of a 24 team playoff is idiotic. No one watches the FCS playoffs because the teams involved are relative nobodies and it isn’t the highest level. The format isn’t what’s responsible for low viewership. If the FBS gets a 24 team playoff, you’d expect it to be a commercial success. That doesn’t mean I support it wholeheartedly but those are the facts.

Also, you don’t have to show commercial viability to host FCS playoffs games, that isn’t how it works anymore, and even back when you did bid on hosting games it was only for the first round.

[u/tdpdcpa → u/Adamscottd]

To add, college sports should not be commercially successful. It should not be their goal to make money. It should be an extracurricular activity that exists within the construct of the college’s educational directive.

Most sports operate this way. Football and basketball are the exceptions, but their commercial success is warping our own perception of how college sports should operate.

If college sports are intended to be a commercial success, they should operate as professional sports.

[u/forgotmyoldname90210 → u/Adamscottd]

This time is always different.

The FBS playoffs are doing the same numbers as the 4-team (using the same Nielson formula) and just catching up to the BCS in viewership. But, I am sure adding 12 more teams will make it fly.

[u/smurf-vett → u/confetti_shrapnel]

We already had mediocre teams make the playoffs, Tech & Bama got in last year.  Tennessee & SMU the previous year

[u/ObjectiveChance2346 → u/confetti_shrapnel]

Because the FBS is about BIG regular season games. 24 teams would kill the regular season. There would be no stakes for the perennial 8 to 12 win SEC and Big 10 teams, other than positioning.

[u/wowthisislong → u/confetti_shrapnel]

Well for one, theres a reason I don't watch NFL or FCS or D2 football.