Last year’s college football playoffs were very controversial. FSU’s (Florida State University) College football went 14-0 and still missed the playoffs due to their quarterback snapping his leg in half. People were furious because the AP poll ranked them 5th which was outside the top 4 teams that made it into the playoffs. People were already mad that only 4 out of the 150+ teams in CFB (college football) make the playoffs every year. But with all the controversies that surrounded it, they finally decided to extend the playoffs to 12 teams. Which is huge for the rapidly growing league being one of the top 3 leagues in the U.S. behind the NFL and NBA, but overtaking the NHL and MLB.
The new college football is pretty simple to understand, but still very different. For starters, the top 4 teams still get an advantage as they get a first round bye so they get an extra week to prepare, it also allows extra rest time. However, all 4 must be conference champions.
This years top 4 include the Oregon Ducks—who have been #1 all season and continue to prove how good they are. Georgia took down Texas, securing the #2 spot. Boise state, led by Heisman finalist Ashton Jeanty, got them to the #3 spot. Arizona State is the last team, and wasn’t expected to make the playoffs all together. But with their convincing win over Iowa and the bad competition from the other conferences, they were able to earn the #4 spot.
However, now the college football playoff has 12 spots, so it becomes much harder to win it all because there are 4 rounds (unlike the previous years, which had 2 rounds). It also gives teams to those who may have not done as well in the regular season, so they have a chance to prove themselves in the playoffs.
This is a very big change to college football, but with that comes mixed opinions and people from FWPA have a lot to say. Ella Kiforishin, a 10th grader at FWPA said, “It causes so much controversy, it gets annoying especially because of completely opinion-based rankings.” Another student who had a lot to say was Isai Delgado, an 8th grader saying, “It’s so much better a team like Boise State would never be able to make the playoffs without the expansion just because they have too easy of a schedule.” And finally, Jordan Mwagi in 9th grade said, “At least there is no excuse now no more ‘declaring’ a championship just because you can’t make it into the playoffs.” Despite all these mixed feelings, people are excited to see what this year’s playoff will look like– after all, no one minds having more football.
