The College Football Playoff Somehow Screwed Up Expansion Even Worse Than I Expected

It's going to happen, folks. I don't know if they're waiting for the current TV contract to expire or exactly when this 12-team College Football Playoff is going to start, but it's coming.

I've been bracing myself for eight teams for years. But they went ahead and blew right by that disaster and decided to go full-on train wreck with 12. We should have just gone straight to the 68-team basketball model at this point.

I've talked ad nauseam about why this sucks. I love college football. I love regular season games between 11-0 Alabama and 10-1 Auburn which will determine a spot in the SEC Championship Game and subsequently the College Football Playoff. Under this format, that game will be a meaningless exhibition for seeding.

I've laid out some of these thoughts previously here:

But what I have a problem with most about CFP expansion was actually exacerbated by this format. Those in charge are going to do everything in their power to overcorrect and make this a Group of Five invitational.

I have also discussed how Group of Five teams have had a very clear path to the Playoff this entire time and have simply refused to take advantage of it. Most of my thoughts on why this format is bad for college football as a whole are in this blog:

Four teams was already arguably too many. Ten of the 14 CFP semifinal games have been decided by at least 17 points. There is a minimum of one team in the field every year who doesn't belong already, and it's usually two. In almost every year since the CFP has been implemented, we would have been just fine with the BCS.

We upended the BCS to create a television product that has largely been bad television. Every great national title game we've had since 2014 would have been the case under the BCS. And now we're going to put even more teams in and make the national champion even more random.

If you like more "playoff" games, then this new format is great for you. I generally believe exclusivity creates better and more fair outcomes.