It took all of one weekend for fans to start complaining about the expanded College Football Playoff.
College football watchers had to endure four non-competitive contests in the opening weekend of the new 12-team playoff format. Saturday saw No. 12 Clemson, No. 11 SMU, and No. 9 Tennessee all lose by at least two touchdowns.
No. 10 Indiana on Friday did better on paper when it fell to No. 7 Notre Dame by just 10 points. But the Hoosiers trailed 27-3 with five minutes left against the Fighting Irish before scoring two touchdowns in the closing minutes.
The results had several fans questioning why the playoff immediately jumped from four teams to a dozen in the first place. Some posted on X arguing that the embarrassing performances of seeds 9 through 12 showed that the playoff expansion only should have been to eight teams.
The first 12-team CFP format made the best case possible for an 8-team playoff.
— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) December 22, 2024
Shorten the CFB Playoff to 8 teams.
#9, #10, #11, and #12 have all not only lost, but have gotten embarrassed tonight.
We sacrificed some regular season game meaning for first round blowouts.
With a 8-team CFP, at least 2 regular season losses could still mean you’re out.
— College Football Report (@CFBRep) December 22, 2024
Shrink the playoff to 8 teams. Seed them based on the final CFP rankings. Quarters on campus, semis/finals at bowls.
Teams 9-12 in this format clearly cannot compete with the top 8. The parity is not there like it is in basketball.
— Kendra Little (@kendra_litt) December 22, 2024
Instead of the CFP expanding from 12 to 14 teams, they should drop down to 8.
— Ryan C (@HookEmNWhoDey) December 22, 2024
Fans hoping for the field to drop to eight teams in the future probably should not hold their breath. College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark recently hinted that the CFP committee could look into expanding the field even more by 2026.
Of course, Clark’s comments came before the four-game slate of blowouts to open this year’s playoff. But given the huge financial incentive to add more teams, it’s hard to imagine the CFP decide to cut down teams after just one uncompetitive weekend.
