Does an exciting NFL Divisional round push the CFP to expansion?

Dan Wetzel and SI's Pat Forde opine about the latest NFL playoff round and how the leaders of the College Football Playoff view the unprecedented excitement. Will we see an expanded playoff sooner than later?

Video Transcript

DAN WETZEL: We are coming off a brilliant weekend of football This happens to be NFL football. When you watch the four divisional round games of the NFL and all four go down to the wire, all exciting in their own way, we know the NFL is different than college, designed for parity. But however, we have this glorious weekend of football. And it's the final eight. It's not the final four. It's not the final two. It's the final eight.

Understanding college football will probably never-- I mean, look, the NFL never produced a weekend like this. But you just play more football and put some stakes on the games. And you get something more. Do you think in any way something like that helps push-- I mean, I know it's all politics at this point, but the inevitability of a playoff? Or is it just like there is no comparison because it's the NFL?

PAT FORDE: I sure hope it pushes us toward an expanded playoff. Because why can't you have something similar? You may never, right, have a weekend quite like that where every single game goes down to the final play to be decided, and there's just spectacular comebacks, and unbelievable drama, and all those things. But why can't we try? Why can't we have those games? If you want a college to college comparison, there are times when all four regional finals of the NCAA tournament are great games. And there's two on Saturday and two on Sunday just like this.

DAN WETZEL: And even if some games are blowouts, others are not because you're just, the weekend prior wasn't all that great.

PAT FORDE: Right. No it was not.

DAN WETZEL: So you don't know. But if you play the game and trust the game, maybe something happens.

PAT FORDE: Yeah. Yeah. And look, yes. I was watching those games thinking, quarterfinals. Let's have them. Let's play them. And it would be fun to have them on home fields. And it was fascinating how little home field mattered three out of the four games the visiting team won. But still, just those atmospheres. You are missing out on a great thing, college football, keeping it at four right now.

DAN WETZEL: Well, the whole bowl thing, I mean you watch those four games. And at any point, you sit there and say, boy, I wish this was being played at neutral site University of Phoenix stadium?

PAT FORDE: No. Absolutely not.

DAN WETZEL: The crowd was part of it. And you're right. 3-1. No, you don't want that. But we have to save the Bowl. And believe me, again, the Bowl industry is not going anywhere because even the worst Bowl games get a couple million people to watch.

PAT FORDE: Yeah.

DAN WETZEL: The Bowl system is going nowhere. What they're protecting is that running a Bowl is worth a million dollars a year, not that the Bowl will exist. I mean, yeah, nobody's sitting there saying, boy, I really, really wish that game was somewhere else. I don't know. It was an incredible weekend of football. And you just sit there and go, gosh. I wish we could throw more games in and have-- again, no one's going to have that weekend. The NFL has been having a playoff for whatever, 75 years, or 100 years, or whatever the hell it's been going on. And you're not going to have that. And but you wish you could have something close.