College Football's Updated 24-Team Playoff Sparks Debate

Segment Spotlight: Quick Hits From Pushing The Odds with Matt Perrault

Wild Upsets Fuel Debate Over a 24-Team College Football Playoff

College football delivered a wild weekend as the teams ranked No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, and No. 7 all lost. No team in the top five won, and no team in the AP poll maintained its position from one week to the next.

Opponents of playoff expansion are echoing Nick Saban’s argument that there are not 24 teams capable of winning the national championship. Supporters point to the widespread upsets, including Florida beating Texas in Austin, as evidence that an expanded field could create the kind of unpredictability seen in college basketball. Florida would not make a 12-team playoff, but a larger field would give teams like that an opportunity.

The push toward 24 teams, however, is strictly about television. ESPN has exclusivity and can prevent TBS, TNT, and Fox from becoming involved. Unlike the NFL playoffs, which appear across Prime, Netflix, CBS, ESPN, and Fox, the college football playoff is controlled by one network.

Expansion would give ESPN 12 additional games to own. If it could not broadcast all of them, it could sell games to TNT, CBS, or another network.

That level of control is a massive mistake. Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt should be calling college football playoff games, and the top broadcasters, including Brad Nessler, should be part of the event. Having ESPN’s fourth- and fifth-tier college football teams call playoff games is not the best option.