On Monday, January 11, 2023, NCAA’s annual College Football Championship was played out, concluding in an utter demolition of TCU. The Result was an objectively boring, uninteresting game in what is expected by football fans to be the epic conclusion to the normally chaotic and consistently surprising sport. Afterwards, social media was cluttered with talk of TCU being undeserving of a playoff berth, Alabama being more qualified and subsequently playing a better game against Georgia, and other general frustrations and disappointments surrounding the game and the withstanding flaws in the NCAA’s playoff format. 

However, whether TCU was qualified from an ability standpoint is irrelevant, seeing as how the teams chosen for the postseason are determined by their regular season success and track record. TCU succumbing to the merciless nature of a four-team playoff bracket is just another in the long line of teams squeaking in, only to be ultimately embarrassed on a national stage against a far superior team. Recent examples include Washington in 2016, Michigan State’s 2015 squad, and Notre Dame in 2018. All three entered as the fourth seed, and exited following a dismantling by the hands of annual powerhouses like Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, etc.

Thus why the 2026 expansion of a playoff to 12 teams seems currently the most logical solution to the nonsensical repetition fans witness every year: a singular Cinderella story who strung together a miraculous regular season, to their standards, only to be inevitably sent home in the first round. Sports fans universally desire parity; invariably watching the same few teams dominate their respected sport is entirely disinteresting – see the Golden State Warriors from 2015 – 2019, a perennial juggernaut that saw the NBA in its most recent significant lull of non competitiveness. Even worse is a condensed playoff field such as the NCAA’s that sees little to no variation in terms of the qualifying teams, furthering allowing for teams to construct dynasties from an unending cycle of dominant recruiting.

College Football’s de facto calling card is its propensity for unpredictable chaos, namely upsets. Blowouts and lopsided affairs are far more common in a college setting than professional leagues, which allows for occasional upsets, garnering further excitement, revenue, and general implications. The inevitable outcome of an increased number of games is, at least partially, a semi-decrease in perennial powerhouses, allowing for more parity in the sport. It’s far more likely that a bracket of this style would’ve been in TCU’s favor, as far as having to play against a team of Georgia’s ability. Moreover, an opportunity for more games means more revenue for all parties involved; concessions at stadiums, merchandise for the teams, ticket prices, etc. It’s undeniable that an expanded playoff system is dramatically beneficial monetarily.

Winning and recruiting in the NCAA is a cause and effect system. If you win more and cement a status as a regularly competitive team, recruiting is going to be much easier: more commitments, more highly ranked players, more wins, until the cycle repeats itself. Recruiting itself, and how it’s done by coaches and the school will be manipulated as a whole; Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, and others won’t be as comfortable promising to a recruit that they’re assuredly going to be one of the final four teams consistently, allowing these players to test the waters elsewhere. A system of diversified commitments across the whole NCAA will maintain this renewed parity across college football, guaranteeing that it won’t revert.