The sport is limping under a broken system, and the SEC commissioner’s fix is the only proposal that treats contenders like contenders.
College football keeps telling fans it upgraded the postseason by moving from four to twelve teams, but the more this season unfolds the more it looks like the sport traded one flawed idea for another. The current 12 team format is already collapsing under its own promises. It is poised to leave out legitimate national title contenders in favor of teams that have no real chance to compete for a championship.
That is why Greg Sankey’s 16 team proposal is not just smart. It is necessary, urgent, and overdue.
The problem sits in plain sight. The current model guarantees automatic bids to conference champions regardless of the strength of those leagues, which opens the door for a scenario that undercuts the entire purpose of a playoff. We are staring at the possibility of Virginia or Duke making the field simply because they could win a down ACC. Neither is built to survive three or four playoff games against the nation’s elite. Yet under this format they can take a spot from programs like Notre Dame, Miami, or Texas, teams that can actually challenge the sport’s heavyweights.
The same issue extends to the Group of Five auto bid. Tulane, North Texas, or James Madison can secure a seat at the table simply by being the best in a weaker neighborhood. This is not a knock on those programs. It is a knock on a system that pretends every zip code is equal when the games clearly say otherwise. A playoff spot should not be a reward for winning the easiest schedule. It should be an earned chance to win a national title.
The heart of the problem is how the committee evaluates teams. All losses are treated the same. A loss to Alabama or Ohio State counts the same as a loss to a mid tier team. The committee does not value strength of schedule, conference depth, or ambitious non conference games. It only sees the number in the loss column. That mindset punishes programs that dare to schedule tough opponents and rewards those that hide behind soft calendars.
That is dangerous for the sport. If taking a swing at a heavyweight risks getting tagged with a loss that the committee treats no differently than any other, why schedule those games? Coaches will avoid marquee matchups. Athletic directors will follow that incentive. September, once filled with electric non conference showcases, will turn into a month of sleepy mismatches. The sport’s biggest selling point, its week to week urgency, will fade.
Sankey’s 16 team model fixes this problem. It expands the field enough to include every real contender without handing out charity spots. It protects teams that challenge themselves. It rewards strong schedules instead of ignoring them. Most important, it restores logic to a postseason that should reflect the season’s full body of work, not just a simple loss tally.
College football has the audience and momentum to build the best playoff in American sports. Instead it is clinging to a half measure that risks shrinking the product and draining the regular season of its punch. Sankey’s proposal delivers what the current format refuses to acknowledge: common sense.
The sport needs that now, before the damage becomes permanent.
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College Football Viewing Guide, Week 15
