By Jamie Plunkett
Frogs Today staff writer
News broke Sept. 2 that the College Football Playoff’s board of managers voted to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams by 2026. Conversations will begin next week in Irving to discuss implementing the 12-team playoff by as early as 2024, according to ESPN.
The move is a major one for college football, which has seen a small group of schools dominate the four-team playoff since its inception in 2014. Moving to 12 teams in the playoffs is, on paper, excellent news for schools like TCU.
I say “on paper” simply because the NCAA has run into a variety of unintended consequences that have spawned from their big decisions about the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness. Depending on how an expanded playoff is instituted, more unintended consequences could be on the way.
Regardless of the potential obstacles, though, expanding the playoff to 12 teams kick-starts the move towards more parity in college football on multiple fronts: opportunity, recruiting and conference realignment.
