By Tyler Hopper
Recently, the NCAA world was given a pleasant surprise, as it was announced that a revision of the College Football Playoffs would begin in 2023. This new format is vastly different, with the field now being 12 teams instead of four, which is something that fans have been clamoring for for years. This field would include the six highest ranked conference champs, along with the top 6 ranked remaining teams, leaving room for new teams to make the CFP. I believe that this is a great opportunity for both the NCAA and College Football fans in general.
Let's start off with what makes the new format a good deal for the NCAA, and it can be summed up in one word… money! Although College football is already a major cash cow, adding in 10 more playoff games would bring in even more money simply by adding more big games into the season. It goes without saying that bowl games are the ones that bring in the most money each season, and the playoff game tickets sell for more than any other game tickets. This could also be beneficial to another major form of income for the NCAA, Broadcasting Rights. The right to broadcast college football games are heavily bidded on by major tv companies, and this is even more true for bowl and playoff games, and so the NCAA could make some serious cash off of selling the rights to broadcast any of the playoff games. There could also be new bowl games, which would mean new bowl sponsors, which leads to… you guessed it, a lot more money for the NCAA. Aside from money, the playoff expansion adds more excitement to the regular season, giving teams more to play for than an out of reach top four spot, meaning more competitive games as teams on the bubble of making the playoffs fight for an opportunity to sneak their way in and wreak havoc. This adds an intriguing factor to the regular season and creates more college football fans.
Now let's break down how this move is beneficial for the fans. One thing worth noting is that College Football fans have been clamoring for an expanded playoffs for years now, and they are finally getting what they want. They no longer have to watch the same teams make the playoffs over and over again, instead giving new teams an opportunity to make it (although something tells me the Alabama and Clemson's of college football will still be there). This gives fans that root for good, but not dominant teams to still have a chance to possibly watch their team make the playoffs. Fans should also be excited about the fact that the top 6 conference champions make the playoffs, as this gives teams that might miss out otherwise a bid into the playoffs if they were to upset a high ranked team in their conference championship (let's say 17th ranked Auburn upsets 1st ranked Alabama). Another reason we should be excited is that the small programs that had phenomenal seasons get the chance to show how good of a team they really are in the playoffs (2017 UCF and last year's Cincinnati teams come to mind as teams that could have made some noise). Fans debate every year how well the small school with a great record would have done in the playoffs, and I think that it is past time that we got to see for ourselves.
Overall, I can't wait until 2023 to see these new playoffs play out! It will add a new level of excitement to the regular season and give teams more to play for, making it all together more entertaining for us as fans.
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