The playoff is expanding.
I know. I know.
Apparently, college football looked at the NCAA tournament expansion debate and decided what everybody really needed was another one of those.
Rick Neuheisel and I spent years arguing for a bigger playoff. When there were four teams, we wanted more access, more meaningful games, and more of the country involved in the championship conversation.
We got what we wanted.
And honestly? Twelve has been pretty damn great.
The regular season hasn’t felt diluted to me. It has felt deeper. More games matter in November. More fan bases have something to watch beyond whether their coach survives Thanksgiving. One result changes how you feel about three other games.
Then we get a Saturday like this one, and the whole thing gets tossed into a blender again.
That’s a hell of a product.
So my first reaction to today’s announcement that we’re going to 24 teams next season wasn’t celebration. It was a groan.
But after the groaning, here’s where I land: I think this can work. It might even be great. I mean, look around it. College football is nuts. Ohio State has 3 losses for goodness sakes.
What I’m tired of is wondering whether anybody running the sport knows when to stop changing it.
Today inside the Show Pony Club: why 24 became so attractive to the people paying the bills, why ESPN’s power deserves scrutiny, and why Saturday felt so different for Pete Golding, Lane Kiffin, Kalen DeBoer, and Ryan Day. Then, the reminder Middle Tennessee and Rick Stockstill gave me about why we care in the first place.
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