Poll: 88 percent of athletic directors want an expanded College Football Playoff
You know how almost every college football fan thought it was a good idea from the beginning for the College Football Playoff to include more than four teams?
It turns out that athletic directors agree. In overwhelming fashion.
Stadium’s Brett McMurphy sent out an anonymous survey to 130 athletic directors overseeing FBS programs. He got back 112 responses. A whopping 88 percent of those who responded support expanding the playoff beyond the current four-team setup that debuted in 2015.
The system has produced two Alabama national championships, two for Clemson, one for Ohio State and one for LSU.
What ADs want from College Football Playoff
According to McMurphy, 72 percent of respondents support an eight-team playoff specifically and 66 percent support the highest-ranked non-Power 5 school gaining an automatic bid to an expanded playoff.
Eleven percent support a playoff of more than eight teams while five percent support a six-team playoff that would presumably offer byes to the top two seeds.
One anonymous athletic director gave voice to the anachronistic viewpoint that cherishes the old bowl system while begrudgingly acknowledging that college football must adapt.
“More and more fans are only concerned with the playoffs,” a Power Five AD told Stadium. “That’s sad, but true, so we should expand the playoffs when possible. Even if that impacts the bowl system. We have to figure out a way.”
Eight teams is the obvious answer
The correct answer, of course, is to have an eight-team playoff. It always has been and always will be. At least until college sports goes through another landscape-shifting conference power grab.
Automatic bids should go the Power 5 conference champions and the top-ranked non-Power 5 team, with two teams earning wild-card bids.
Any argument that expansion would create complaints from the ninth and 10th teams on the outside looking in is strictly looking for something to argue about. An eight-team playoff secures a bid for the Power 5 champions and would include all of the legitimate contenders for a championship where a four-team playoff falls short.
Playoff changes not happening anytime soon
Of course this is all moot until 2026. College football’s power brokers missed their chance to get this right the first time whey they locked themselves into a 12-year deal with ESPN in 2014 that calls for a four-team playoff. That contract’s not going anywhere. We’re stuck with four teams through 2025.
But it can’t hurt to get athletic directors on the record — even if anonymously — to help build a groundswell for eight teams for the next deal.
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