CFP expansion is good ... and all about the money

Friday’s announcement that the College Football Playoff will expand from four teams to 12 teams by no later than 2026 was about as surprising as September following August on the calendar.

Expansion was going to happen sooner or later — later as it turned out — not because anyone in charge was concerned about the fairness of the four-team playoff or because it was the right thing to do. Or because of ANY concern for what might be best for the players.

In the end, as always, the presidents and their henchpeople simply figured out that there was much too much money on the table to not expand. Say the word, “billions,” to any college president and you will have that person’s attention instantly.

And so, at some point in the next few years, we will get a 12-team playoff: four first-round byes; four firstround games at home sites; quarterfinals and semifinals at bowl sites and the championship game to the highest bidder.

For the record, this is the right thing to do and should have been done when the playoff was first created. The 11-member board of managers — made up of presidents and chancellors — formally voted unanimously Friday to instruct the conference commissioners to change the format from four teams to 12 teams no later than 2026 but perhaps as early as 2024. Bet on the earlier date.

As you might expect, the quotes coming out of this announcement are comical. The best one might have come from Mark Keenum, Mississippi State president and chairman of the board of managers.

“We’re not naive to understand that there’s additional revenue by having an expanded playoff,” he said, presumably with a straight face. “But I can tell you from being part of the discussions from the very beginning, what motivated the presidents and me as well was that we wanted to have an opportunity for more participation of teams in our nation’s national championship tournament. Having only four teams, we felt like that’s not fair to our student-athletes from a participation standpoint . ...

“We do recognize the additional revenues that will be available, but that hasn’t been the driving force behind this ultimate decision. It has not been.”

Keenum should have added, “I’ll be here all week. Try the veal and tip your waiters.”

Money wasn’t the driving force behind the decision? Seriously? Money is the ONLY driving force behind the decisions being made in college athletics nowadays. Did Oklahoma and Texas decide to jump to the SEC because their leadership wanted their “student-athletes” to have the chance to visit Tuscaloosa or Starkville? Did UCLA and USC decide to join the Big Ten to make November trips to Columbus or Ann Arbor — or, for that matter, Piscataway or College Park?

Participation of the “student-athletes?” This just now occurred to the presidents?

For years, academics defended the archaic bowl system on the grounds that they didn’t want to ask the “student-athletes,” to extend their seasons or to play too many games. Then the 11-game regular season schedule became a 12-game regular season schedule. Then conference championships became a 13th game and making the College Football Playoff ensured teams competing for the title would play up to 15.

Now, potentially, teams might play 17 — if the conference championship games don’t go away. That’s the same number of regular season games now being played in the NFL.

What really drove this decision was the ACC, the Big 12 and the Pac-12 realizing they’re in serious jeopardy of losing any remaining relevance. The Pac-12 and Big 12 had already taken financial body blows with the impending departures of USC, UCLA, Texas and Oklahoma. The ACC had to be living in fear that the SEC might poach Clemson — the only school in the conference that matters nationally since the downfalls of once-mighty Florida State and Miami.

If Clemson were to leave for (most likely) the SEC and take one of those fallen powers with it, the ACC would spend the rest of eternity sending teams to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The mayonnaise bath the winning coach receives would have felt entirely appropriate for the league’s football profile.

Now, with six conference champions guaranteed a slot among the 12 teams in the new system, the three wounded power leagues can at least lay claim to being part of the new tournament. So too, in all likelihood, can Notre Dame, since TV will want the

Irish in the tournament as long as they field a team.

As for the little guys — the so-called Group of Five — they will now get at least one bid every year. That’s exactly the same number of total bids they received in the first eight years of the four-team event. Nothing beyond that is guaranteed. As with the basketball committee, you can bet that the third- and fourth-place teams from the power conferences will receive priority over the No. 2 team from the Group of Five.

It took a perfect storm — and a win at Notre Dame — to get a 13-0 Cincinnati team into last year’s playoff. Don’t expect too many storms like that to get a second team in. It’s worth noting that, having met its requirement to have at least one Group of Five team among the “New Year’s Six Bowls,” by giving Cincinnati a playoff spot, no other one was asked to the four non-playoff major bowls.

You can also bet that the Group of Five team will NOT be one of the four seeded teams that gets a bye and, depending on the rules, might very well play on the road in the first round. The only way that might not happen is if a decision is made that the two conference champions who don’t receive byes get to host first round games.

This is a good thing for college football. It will NOT, as some apologists for systems both current and past, make the regular season less important. In fact, the opposite will be true. The top teams will scramble for a first-round bye; everyone else will want desperately to play at home, and the rest will be, to use a beloved basketball tournament term, bubble teams.

The money coming from TV will be mind-boggling. ESPN certainly has rightof-first refusal until its current contract runs out after the 2025 season. After that? The presidents can probably sit back and enjoy a bidding war that will run into the billions since eleven games will be needed to decide a national champion instead of three.

Oh, in case you were worried, the Rose Bowl will still be connected to the Big Ten and the Pac-12. And so, the possibility of a USC-Oregon Rose Bowl still exists. Or perhaps UCLA-Stanford. Classic rivalries.

It’s comforting to know that some traditions remain intact. Because, after all, it’s all about those “student-athletes,” not the money. Just ask the presidents.