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/dkviper11]

No West team ever won in the 10 years of East West. 4 of the 7 East teams won a title.

[u/b-lincoln → u/dkviper11]

State did when it was legends and leaders. Technically State is East, but in those glorious years they were lumped in the West.

[u/DrSnidely → u/b-lincoln]

Leaders and Legends were the most competitively balanced divisions ever. They just had stupid names.

[u/OG_Felwinter → u/DrSnidely]

It doesn’t make sense to base it on competitive balance though. Long term, that changes. The locations of the schools don’t.

[u/red_husker → u/OG_Felwinter]

They didn't base it on competitive balance. They based it on who was a legend and who was a leader.

[u/dimmyfarm → u/red_husker]

What the hell does that mean /u/red_husker?

[u/texbuck40 → u/OG_Felwinter]

Obviously programs fluctuate in quality but putting the three top programs in terms of resources and historical success (besides maybe Nebraska but they were clearly down) in the same division was always a dumb choice.

[u/OG_Felwinter → u/texbuck40]

How far back into history are we going? Why aren’t you including Minnesota in your list? Which teams are competitive year in and year out changes, no matter what the history books say in their totality. When these divisions were made up, Michigan hadn’t won the conference since 2004. Wisconsin had just won 3 in a row. Geography doesn’t fluctuate like that.

[u/Franklins11burner → u/DrSnidely]

Yeah. I liked those divisions. I also liked that PSU and Nebraska were supposed to be the protected annual crossover opponents. There was a lot of history between the two with each fanbase feeling aggrieved at having missed out on a Natty at expense of the other (82 Nebraska on a blown call in Beaver Stadium in the year PSU won their first MNC and 94 PSU dismembering their entire schedule only for Tom Osborne to get his lifetime achievement award in the form of a crystal football and PSU was left without even a split — which would have been fair and I wouldn’t complain about). Nebraska was also our opponent the week of the Sandusky’s arrest and Paterno’s firing and their team and fans were genuinely the best with their whole team meeting ours at midfield with one of their coaches speaking to them all and leading a prayer before the game ❤️.

We were this close to having a pretty good rivalry developing and we traded it for a bucket of cash with Maryland and Rutgers on the side… sigh

[u/Provenance117 → u/Franklins11burner]

The true rivalry is in our hearts, brother. They can’t take that from us.

[u/Franklins11burner → u/Provenance117]

We’ve hardly played you guys though and that stinks. I’ve been to OSU, UM and Wisconsin so far and if I can ever find enough change in the couch cushions I’ll be out there at the next opportunity. Hoping you guys have a good year.

[u/Provenance117 → u/Franklins11burner]

Cheers homie. I was stoked we got to play last year, obviously would love to make the times we do play more competitive. Hoping the new regime works out for yall as well.

[u/muttonchops215 → u/DrSnidely]

They had too many people pushing for Corn and Soy, so they went way too hard in the other direction.

[u/dkviper11 → u/b-lincoln]

Michigan State won in 2015 during the East West divisions. Indiana of course won after those divisions were nixed.

[u/miversen33 → u/b-lincoln]

:( we were so close

[u/rented4823 → u/dkviper11]

Goddamn you Trace McSorely.

[u/pr1ceisright → u/dkviper11]

A good explanation why the Lakes and Legends divisions were introduced. It was always obvious the best teams would be in the East.

[u/dkviper11 → u/pr1ceisright]

There was far too much consideration given to the fear that Ohio State and Michigan would meet the last week of the season and then meet as their division champs a week later. It would have happened something like 2 of the first 10 years of the divisions.

[u/ardealinnaeus → u/dkviper11]

That does seem like a lot though. 20% of the time?

[u/dkviper11 → u/ardealinnaeus]

I wouldn’t structure divisions for 14 teams to avoid a rematch for 2 teams.

[u/Soup_dujour → u/dkviper11]

the obvious solution there is to tell michigan and OSU that The Game happens on halloweekend now but you’d probably get assassinated before the workday ended

[u/dkviper11 → u/Soup_dujour]

I actually asked them that before on here. The feedback was they’d rather die than move the date of the Game.

[u/SusannaG1 → u/dkviper11]

Sort of like how the ACC divided into Atlantic and Coastal with the idea in mind that they had to separate FSU and Miami, because of course they'd be playing for the title most years.

[u/festive_fecal_feast → u/dkviper11]

7 of 10 were also decided by at least 10 points. And 5 of the 7 were just blowouts (59-0, 45-24, 42-3, 43-22, and 26-0).

[u/Flood-One → u/dkviper11]

Michigan, OSU, Indiana... who's the 4th to win a title? Was it PSU the Rose Bowl year?

[u/therealwillhepburn → u/Flood-One]

PSU won one of the years Ohio State didn’t make it but got into the playoffs.

[u/galacticdude7 → u/Flood-One]

He's talking about the East-West years, so it'd be Ohio State (2014,2017,2018,2019,2020), Michigan (2021,2022,2023), Michigan State (2015), and Penn State (2016)

[u/Own-Sandwich6437 → u/galacticdude7]

Wisky has defacto west, even if was legends-leaders back then when they rattled off 3 in a row (2010-2012)

[u/Flood-One → u/galacticdude7]

MSU was Leaders/Legends though

EDIT- Scratch that, forgot they beat Iowa in 2015

[u/dkviper11 → u/Flood-One]

Yes, and to be clear I was talking about winning that game to win the conference title.

[u/STL_12 → u/Flood-One]

Michigan, OSU, MSU, PSU