Now the current contract with ESPN runs through 2020 or something like that, but with the ratings bonanza that the four letter network has got and the immense craziness at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, I think the money hungry people at the NCAA will want to go to ESPN and say "Hey, you know that contract we had, lets, uh, you know, renegotiate that thing..." I guarantee that ESPN will say that that will not be an issue because that means more money. There is so much more money to be made and more exposure for these programs that the NCAA will have no real other choice other than to expand it.
How much do they expand the playoffs? The prevailing thought is that they will go to a six or eight team playoff. I have been of the train of thought to keep it at four, but am coming around to the thought of the eight team. You can have first round byes, you could have teams have a home field advantage scenario, and you could include games in cold weather stadiums. I am not sure that I would want it to go as far as 12 teams because then you start diluting the talent pool in terms of teams that really deserve a shot at being in the playoff. I wouldn't want this playoff to turn into the NCAA basketball tournament. There are to many teams in that tournament. Let's face it. Everybody likes the underdog, but in the end people generally want to see the "big boys" go at each other. So for football, it's turned out nice this year by seeing Alabama take on an Ohio State, watch Florida State deal with Oregon. People tune in for something like that. They wouldn't necessarily being tuning for a Florida State-Washington game or a Oregon-Kansas State game if we had a bunch of different rounds in the college football playoff. Each round needs to have major teams going at each other.
I think when they expand the playoffs to probably an eight team format then you can have seeding and have the top two seeds have first round byes. People say that wouldn't be fair. I say, so what. This is not little boy football where we hand out trophies just being there. If you want a first round bye, go earn it by your play on the field and who you play. I would even say that the top two seeds could have home field advantage when they play their first games in the playoff. That may put a team in a cold weather situation such as playing in Oregon or at The Horseshoe in Columbus, but if those teams earn that right, they earn that right.
I am not sure that I am totally convinced that I like expanding it, but I am a realist when there are hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars involved with something like this. To much money can be made by people who want that money, so in the end, the playoffs will get expanded and the NCAA will get what it always wants.... money. Just saying...
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