The expansion of the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams will make it even tougher to win a national title now as you’ll have to win three or four games as opposed to just two.
However, the bright side is that it’ll be much easier to qualify than in years past with the expansion. Not that it was ever an issue for the Alabama Crimson Tide as they qualified in eight of the ten years, but the other 133 FBS programs were essentially stuck vying for the remaining three Playoff spots.
Even for the Crimson Tide, the Playoff expansion could not have come at a better time as they are transitioning from legendary head coach Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer.
In the 10 years of the four-team College Football Playoff, no two-loss team ever qualified and the margin for error was very thin. Now, with a field of 12, the reality is over half of the teams will have two or more losses and teams can afford a slip-up or two and still have the chance to compete for a national title.
Heck, 247 Sports even sees a path where seven different schools could qualify for the playoffs with three losses on their resume including Alabama, Michigan Wolverines, Texas Longhorns, USC Trojans, Oregon Ducks, Georgia Bulldogs, Florida Gators.
Granted the losses can’t come to programs like Western Kentucky or Tennessee Tech, but if Alabama’s three losses are Georgia, LSU and Tennessee, they will have a case to make saying,
“Name recognition matters in the expanded playoff era. You’re not going to hear that publicly from the selection committee, but benefit of the doubt comes into play when elite programs battle through tough schedules and have quality wins to show for it. That could be the case for Alabama this season as Kalen DeBoer takes over for Nick Saban with huge shoes to fill. If the Crimson Tide have wins over Wisconsin, Missouri, Oklahoma and Auburn, that’s going to be a tough sell keeping a nine-win team with that resume out of the top 12.”
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