The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams in advance of the 2024 season.
There is seismic change across the sport entering the year. The Big Ten welcomes in USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, the SEC welcomes in Texas and Oklahoma and the Pac 12 no longer exists. Then there’s the Playoff, which is sure to have trickle-down effects on the rest of the sport.
All of this change affects Wisconsin in some way. On one hand, the Badgers now face a much tougher schedule and the Big Ten West no longer exists. On the other, College Football Playoff expansion opens the door for the team to become a perennial contender.
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For reference, an account on ‘X’ recently listed the number of CFP appearances for each program had it always contained 12 teams.
Wisconsin is not at the top with Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Clemson and the other powers. But it’s in the pack with three appearances (2016, 2017 and 2019) — an impressive group with Florida, Florida State, Washington, Oregon, Michigan State, Baylor and USC.
Playoff Appearances if the playoff was always at 12 Teams.
What are your takeaways? pic.twitter.com/SgNjYoBAdR
— CFBudge (@CF_Budge) February 23, 2024
Now, I’d argue Wisconsin was a perennial contender when it was narrowly losing in the Big Ten Championship to Ohio State, but that argument is often ignored. But this exercise shows Wisconsin’s potential moving forward.
All Luke Fickell needs to do, in all honesty, is return the program to where it was from 2016-2019 under Paul Chryst. Then Wisconsin becomes a perennial CFP contender and one of the more relevant programs in the country.
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