Big Ten deputy commissioner Kerry Kenny claimed this week that 80 schools would have made a 24-team field in the College Football Playoff (CFP) era. His statement didn’t have quite the effect that he may have thought it would.
Kenny made the statement to the media this week during the Big Ten’s annual spring meetings in California. It was part of the argument the conference has been making in an effort to double the number of schools that qualify for college football’s postseason.
There are a couple of problems with Kenny’s argument that 80 schools would have made a 24-team field since 2014. The first is a very minor one. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Kenny said the Big Ten ran the numbers to arrive at 80 teams.
The second problem is that ever since it was revealed that a 14-person presidential “media” committee wanted to expand the College Football Playoff (CFP) to 24 teams, many fans have vehemently opposed the move.
“The regular season is a playoff vibe right now,” one fan wrote on X, echoing many other comments. “Every game matters because one loss can take you out of contention. Going to 24 teams devalues the regular season and lets teams in that have lost 20% of their games. 24 teams is incredibly dumb.”
“80 teams aren’t competitive,” read another comment that summarized a common theme. “You ruin the regular season to instead have multi-touchdown underdogs in a first-round playoff game. Doesn’t make any sense.
“What if we make it a 136-team playoff format? If you go back to 2014, then all 136 teams would have made the playoffs!” another fan wrote sarcastically.
As another fan pointed out, while 80 schools would have made the playoffs if it were a 24-team field since 2014, “only 7 teams have won a title in that time.”
The Big Ten is going to fight hard for a 24-team college football playoff
The Big Ten has been digging its heels in and appears to be in for a battle over the expansion of the College Football Playoff.
“We focused on the fact that we believe 24 is the right number,” said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.
“We had zero conversation about 16 (teams),” said Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti.
So far, the SEC doesn’t seem very interested in expanding the playoffs
The SEC, one the other hand, so far, isn’t with them in the fight even though, as David Ubben of The Athletic revealed, the SEC really has nothing to lose by adding more teams.
“If there had been a 24-team playoff dating back to 2014, every single SEC team would have made the field at least once,” he wrote.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, “According to a memorandum of understanding that the conferences and Notre Dame signed in March 2024, the Big Ten and SEC must agree on a format for it to be adopted. SEC administrators gather next week near Destin, Florida, for their version of their annual spring meetings. But the conference’s position on a playoff may not be clear until June, when the CFP’s governance committee next meets in person. Playoff media consultants are expected to present a valuation of a 24-team field then.”