Hogs get fed, pigs get slaughtered.
On Friday, the Big Ten submitted a proposal for a new 24-team College Football Playoff, and it is officially one step too far.
One of the greatest things about college football is the importance of the regular season. It is the mid-October game that could bounce a team from playoff contention or the late-November game that fans can't sleep the night before because it is a must-win.
A 24-team College Football Playoff eliminates that because it basically just lets everyone into the dance.
Looking at the proposal that was released by ESPN's Pete Thamel on Friday, which came from the Big Ten, was one of the worst ideas I have seen in a long time. For an organization and a sport that has so many problems going on right now, they are totally addicted to adding more and more games to the playoffs.
I was in the camp years ago that the move from the BCS to the playoffs was a good thing. Then, I was also in the camp that Playoff expansion was the correct move, too. My ideal number was 16, but the 12-team playoff was growing on me.
Now, seeing this proposal, 16 is even too much.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are All Over Super Bowl 60 | Darron Lee News Update | OSU Hoops Up and DownThe Ohio State Buckeyes are all over Super Bowl 60 as the Patriots and Seahawks battle for the World Championship. On the home front, the Buckeyes put the fi...There are several different angles to approach this, but I want to focus on the importance of the regular season and how that goes out the window with this idea.
Seeds 15-24 in this proposal simply do not deserve to be in the playoffs. Full stop.
Seed 15, the Utah Utes lost to two ranked teams in their regular season. They were crushed by 24 points by Texas Tech (who eventually lost by 23 to Oregon), and they fell to BYU, who didn't make the dance.
They had their opportunity to get in, and they were not good enough to do it. The same story goes for USC, Arizona, Vanderbilt, Texas, and the rest of the bottom of this bracket.
This isn't to say that these are bad teams; it is to say that the regular season has to mean something. Expanding the playoffs to 24 teams will allow three and four-loss teams to regularly make the postseason.
That means that a team can lose 25 or 33 percent of its regular-season games and still make the dance.
It's a bad model, and if it gets implimented it might be the first time in modern history that too much football has been created.
Hopefully, smarter heads prevail.
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