'Unintended Consequences': How the 12-team playoff could impact College Football

The College Football Playoff is going to look too completely different in 2024. For the last ten years, this playoff has been played as four teams where six different teams have won the National Championship play out of Michigan Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Clemson, and Ohio State. However, taking part in the present times, the growth for the teams from 4 to 12 is believed to bring an extra portion of interest for the fans and the teams who had no chances to take part in the playoff whatsoever before it.

Here's a look at some of the key changes to the new-look College Football Playoff:Here's a look at some of the key changes to the new-look College Football Playoff:

1. The twelve teams will be awarded will be made up of the 5 Conference champions with the highest ranking, and 7 other teams with the best overall records- at-large bids.

2. The four conference champions would be ranked the highest and get a first-round bye.

3. The remaining eight teams will first-round games that will be played and hosted on a campus by the higher seeds.

4. A team from the same conference as the other teams that made the playoffs can itself make the playoffs as many times as possible.

5. Games of New Year’s Six will accommodate quarter final and semi final games which include; Rose bowl games , sugar bowl games, Orange bowl games, Cotton bowl games, Peach bowl games and Fiesta bowl games.

However, the more recent change has seen a lot of energy towards the event but there are some who believe that there could be side effects of the format on players’ choices. The most recent head coach to express that thinking was Dabo Swinney of Clemson.

The players, you know, Swinney said, intimating that the change is inevitable: It’s going to become all about the player which is okay. Yet, I believe there are probably some overshadowing negative effects for that as well. You probably will see some guy who if you are 4-4 and most likely out of playoff, most likely you will see some guys immediately run to Arizona to train. Perhaps, you are 11-0 and you have that big game, the one you look forward to for weeks. But, oh, you pitch your largest competitor the subsequent week within the conference sport, and in the event you lose that recreation you’ll get a BYE. Well, you know, so that are things and decisions that you will most likely observe throughout college football.

If you have an opinion over Swinney, though, the worry is genuine. Players already make business decisions when the question is whether to play in a game that someone deems as a “meaningless bowl game” or sit out to preserve for the NFL; therefore, missing an expanded playoff must mean that there are even more of those decisions from those who will be left out. Another example that Swinney discussed is how would the players see that final game of the regular season compared to their getting ready to play a conference championship a week later that is so much more important to the overall season. Such are situations that one can witness in the NFL plenty of times when the men prefer to sharpen their physical shape for the playoffs if they are in already.

The sensational head coach Nick Saban who has recently assumed the position of the college football analyst also came forward to discuss about the expansion of this playoff at the SEC Media Days. Still, Saban argued that is will be good for the fans, however, he did speak about at least one issue that he sees with the new format.

The following is what Saban had to say: “I agree that. . I believe that more emphasis can be applied on strength of schedule. ” I give the example of Florida going 09 in the sec in baseball and almost making the world series. There is a lot of excellent teams in the SEC or SouthEastern Conference, hence, the value of strength of schedule is very high. I do believe that the newly formulated play offs are going to be very much in favor of the enthusiasts. When we had a four team playoff, you only had maybe seven or eight teams that were. . . Their fans’ reaction was really enthusiastic especially towards the end of the season waiting to whether they made it to the playoffs or not. Now you’re going to have 25 or 30 fan bases that are eager to know which series makes it to the playoffs.

“The knock on it is, all I’d like to see is we take the 12 best teams in the playoff Not worry about conference champions and all that kind of stuff If you do get beat in the conference championship game and you’re one of the best teams, you still should get in there because you’ve played really quality opponents and you’ve played good football So, that’s my only concern about it I just want to see the best

Saban has said it from a horses mouth or from his perspectives, that he humbly and very candidly agrees that it will be more difficult to win a National Championship now than it has ever been before in college football.

Well I think it’s going to be a lot tougher You’re going to have to play more games We won some SEC championships when it was one game for a playoff It was tougher when there were two games in the playoff plus the SEC Championship game to get in Potentially could play 17 games It has been played 15 games several times and that’s a lot of games for players to sustain the level of intensity necessary to be successful and sustain at