Definitely has no bearing on the actual champion. I dont think expansion past 4, or hell even 2 teams, really does now. It's just about what extra dollars you'd make and exposure for your program. Just think, one day we can get stomped by Bama on national tv! In basketball it's a big deal for recruiting for those small teams to make th…
Definitely has no bearing on the actual champion. I dont think expansion past 4, or hell even 2 teams, really does now. It's just about what extra dollars you'd make and exposure for your program. Just think, one day we can get stomped by Bama on national tv! In basketball it's a big deal for recruiting for those small teams to make the tournament, and with such a big field of teams there is bound to be some entertaining magic. But the physical reality of football also doesn't allow for a dark horse the same way that basketball does.
There's more a "fairness" issue with the current 4-team system, since by its very nature it has to leave out at least one Power 5 conference champ (sometimes more) and will never let in a mid-major team. Under the proposed new system, there is a path for everyone.
Most of the time it's pretty clear that one of the top four teams would definitely win the championship. But still . . . we've seen years where neither of the Top 2 teams advance, or where the 4 seed wins the whole thing, so who's to say someone from 5-12 couldn't pull it off? And yes, I think a knock-on effect of this will be that recruiting wealth can be spread more broadly. The top recruits were increasingly gravitating to the select few programs that are seemingly always in the tournament (Bama, OSU, Clemson), but now more teams could legitimately claim to have a shot at the playoff and attract more recruits.
Definitely has no bearing on the actual champion. I dont think expansion past 4, or hell even 2 teams, really does now. It's just about what extra dollars you'd make and exposure for your program. Just think, one day we can get stomped by Bama on national tv! In basketball it's a big deal for recruiting for those small teams to make the tournament, and with such a big field of teams there is bound to be some entertaining magic. But the physical reality of football also doesn't allow for a dark horse the same way that basketball does.
There's more a "fairness" issue with the current 4-team system, since by its very nature it has to leave out at least one Power 5 conference champ (sometimes more) and will never let in a mid-major team. Under the proposed new system, there is a path for everyone.
Most of the time it's pretty clear that one of the top four teams would definitely win the championship. But still . . . we've seen years where neither of the Top 2 teams advance, or where the 4 seed wins the whole thing, so who's to say someone from 5-12 couldn't pull it off? And yes, I think a knock-on effect of this will be that recruiting wealth can be spread more broadly. The top recruits were increasingly gravitating to the select few programs that are seemingly always in the tournament (Bama, OSU, Clemson), but now more teams could legitimately claim to have a shot at the playoff and attract more recruits.