Jim Harbaugh Wants The College Football Playoff Expanded And He Wants To Do Away With Conference Championships

Getty Image / Gregory Shamus

It was Big Ten media day yesterday and Jim Harbaugh grabbed headlines but not for anything the Wolverines are expected to do on the field this season. The Sporting News way-too-early 2018 College Football Preseason Rankings have the Michigan Wolverines ranked at #12, just one slot ahead of rival Michigan State at #13, and their other big rival THE Ohio State Buckeyes are at #4.

The Wolverines open their season against a highly-ranked (#9) Notre Dame. They’ll also play Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan State this season. There’s zero chance the Wolverines go undefeated. Harbaugh knows this. In fact, based on his words at the Big Ten media day I’m thinking Harbaugh expects his team to lose a handful of games.

At Big Ten media day Harbaugh expressed that he thinks the College Football Playoff should be expanded from 4 teams to SIXTEEN, and he thinks college football should do away with conference championship games:

“More would be better in the playoffs,” Harbaugh said Monday at Big Ten media days in Chicago. “Four right now, go to eight and eventually get to 16.”

Other Big Ten coaches weren’t on board with this idea. Here’s what Penn State’s head coach James Franklin had to say:

“People talk about expanding the playoffs and things like that,” he said. “I’m not on the same page with that. This game, we started out playing 10 games, then we went to 11 games and then 12 games, and now with the playoffs you’re talking about 15 games. That’s a lot of games.” (via)

Minnesota’s head coach echoed the sentiment of Nick Saban that he likes the current system as it is but also said that he’d like some more clarification from the selection committee on what they value in terms of scheduling. James Franklin’s issue with the CFB Playoff is uniformity. He wants to find a way to do away with subjectivity when the committee is comparing two teams.