The expansion of the college football playoffs has allowed many teams to compete at the highest level. Before this expansion, there were only 4 teams that could compete for the national championship.
Since there were only 4 spots available to compete for the national championship before the expansion it would lead to a group of 5 teams being left out. Many of these group of 5 teams had the chance to compete at the highest level but were always left out because the power 5 teams were heavily favored.
With the expansion, the top-ranked group of 5 schools that won their conference is guaranteed a spot in the college football playoffs. The top 4 ranked conference winners get the first four seeds and a bye in the new CFP format. Then the 5th highest-ranked conference champion gets the last automatic bid.
The expansion has now allowed for these one loss and two loss teams that had a hard strength of schedule to still compete for the national championship.
This year’s college football playoff is the first time seeing this expanded bracket. Without this bracket, we wouldn’t get to see Boise State and their star running back and Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty compete for the title.
We also wouldn’t get to watch two power 5 conference winners Clemson and Arizona State. The bracket expansion allows top teams like Ohio State and Tennessee who had two losses on the season to still compete for the title even though they aren’t ranked in the top 4.
This can cause complete chaos in each team’s chase for the title. Oregon could potentially have to go against Ohio State/Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia to win the title. These teams are arguably top 4 teams in the nation except for Tennessee, where they are easily a top 10 team.
Without the expansion of the CFP, we wouldn’t see the best teams in the nation compete against one another.
