Catch or No Catch: NCAA Playoff should include eight teams instead of four

Ah, the NCAA. Rarely does high praise follow any mention of this adored organization. Still, I would like to give credit where it’s due by applauding its awesome, if obvious, decision to do away with the Bowl Championship Series in favor of a College Football Playoff in 2014. 

I don’t know if you remember life before this landmark decision, but it was a dark time for college football fans. Only two teams had the chance to play for a national championship, and those two teams were determined by the BCS, a confusing formula that even most college football analysts couldn’t explain. Oh, it was terrible. Three teams could go undefeated, but only two would have the chance to play for the championship game. Or worse, in 2007 two teams went undefeated, but a one-loss “power conference” team was chosen to play for a national championship over my beloved 2007 Hawaii Warriors? But I digress. 

Fans had pushed for a four-team playoff for ages, and it was an instant success in its first year. The Ohio State Buckeyes, equipped with a third-string quarterback and future NFL star running back Ezekiel Elliott, snuck in as the fourth seed with a matchup against the No. 1-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide. Elliott ran all over Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s defense — in New Orleans of all places — and the Buckeyes upset the Tide for a chance to play Oregon in the national championship.

The season ended with Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple picking off Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota in the closing seconds. It was clear that the College Football Playoff was justified in its inaugural year, as it provided a talented team which would not have been able to contend for the BCS an opportunity to win it all.

Since then, we’ve had a fair mix of sleepy and enthralling playoff performances. Alabama and Clemson are the meat and potatoes, while Lincoln Riley’s high-powered Oklahoma offenses spice things up. There’s usually one team that doesn’t seem to belong and one or two teams that should have gone in its place. 

But you know what’s better than a four-team playoff? I’ll tell you — an eight-team playoff. Yeah, I know — thanks, Captain Obvious. But I’m serious. College football needs an eight-team playoff. It’s not a controversial statement. In fact, it’s a sentiment shared by fans and analysts alike since the first round of playoff games. We can’t get enough of them. 

However, there’s a much better reason to double the playoff field than simply entertainment. We’re still less than halfway through the college football season, but I can count about 10 teams off the top of my head that all deserve a shot at a playoff spot: Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, LSU, Auburn, Wisconsin, Notre Dame and Florida. Throw in a Texas, Penn State or Oregon team that runs the table, and you’ve got a real traffic jam of good football. 

Now, many of these teams will play each other at some point this season and thin the herd — some already have — but all of these teams look dominant right now. We already have a glimpse of a dream scenario in which recent transfers Ohio State sophomore quarterback Justin Fields and Oklahoma senior quarterback Jalen Hurts could seek revenge against their former teams in the playoffs (Fields transferred from Georgia, Hurts from Alabama). 

But I’ll be damned if I don’t get a chance to see LSU senior quarterback Joe Burrow do the same to Ohio State, the school he transferred from in 2018. How will we determine the playoff contenders if Notre Dame runs the table with only one loss in a tight game to Georgia? Or with this bloodless SEC West, which includes games between Alabama, Auburn and LSU, only one of which will have the chance to compete for an SEC championship? And see, just like that, I forgot about the behemoth that is our defending national champions: coach Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers.

Point is, these teams are too good to leave out of championship contention. Who cares if they eat each other once or twice in the regular season? Isn’t that what the playoff is for? And don’t give me the old talking point about more strain on their bodies from the extra round of games. These guys grind out full seasons just for the chance to play for a national championship. Why not reward more teams with the chance to achieve this fantasy?

I’m not a college football expert — just an angry, maladjusted fan, if you couldn’t already tell. Still, it’s time to give the demographic and the teams what they deserve. College football is already one of the most binge-worthy and compelling sports to watch on television, so why not up the ante a little bit? But that’s for another column.

Matthew Philips is a senior writing about football. He is also a former lifestyle editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Catch or No Catch,” runs every other Tuesday.