With the NCAA Tournament set to begin in less than 24 hours, the brackets are the main topic of conversation across the country. While college basketball has thrilled millions for years with March Madness, college football has struggled to find the same type of event capable of capturing the nation’s attention.
Make no mistake, college football is still king when it comes to college sports. Division I began dabbling in tournament structure with the College Football Playoff, with the four-team playoff beginning in 2014. Despite the hype of the annual playoffs, they often fail, with most games ending. to the point of eruptions. Much of this could be due to the talent disparity between top programs and the rest of the teams across the country.
Since the playoffs began, there has been talk of expanding the playoffs to eight teams, or even mirroring the FCS model and including 16 teams in the playoffs. ESPN’s Chris Low went even further, simulating a 64-team College Football Playoff, using SP+ projections ahead of the 2021 season to determine seeding.
It should not be surprising that state of ohio earned a seed in the hypothetical College Football Tournament, as the Buckeyes have become a College Football Playoff staple. Alabama, Clemson and Oklahoma join the Buckeyes as top seeds. If the tournament actually became an annual event, you could pretty much designate those four number one seeds every year, and maybe start Georgia as an alternate to replace one of those teams in the event of a bad year.
Immediately, one of the thoughts about the 64-team College Football Playoff is that we won’t get one of the things we see so much in March Madness and love so much. Upheavals. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we’ll still see lower seeds beat higher seeds, but it’s just hard to see 12 or 13 seeds win consistently like we do in college basketball . Even if these lower seeds win, it’s unlikely we’ll see them make Cinderella’s run to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight that captivates the country.
One thing I noticed about Low’s playoff run was that the Big Ten was well represented. Of the 14 teams in the Big Ten, 12 of them did football’s “big dance.” That’s where the fun ends for most of the conference, as predictions have only five Big Ten teams advancing to the second round. What makes this fantasy playoff even crazier is that Nebraska is one of those teams. Now you really know that this is not something that will ever happen.
Of course, this would be a logistical nightmare for schools, especially now when the world is still dealing with a pandemic. Would it be fun to see once? Yes. But if it was every year, it might get a little too repetitive. One of the beautiful things about college basketball’s NCAA Tournament is that there’s regular fresh blood making noise. It’s hard to find the Loyolas, Wichita States and George Masons of college football.
Right now, it feels like college football is right. While four teams might seem a bit small and there are always a few teams that feel snubbed, you’re going to have the same problem if you expand to eight teams. Maybe you expand to try to get playoff games that are actually competitive, but if they don’t go that way, you’re just adding more blowouts to a playoff that is mostly blowouts these days.
Even though the start of the NCAA tournament is fast approaching, there is still time to participate in the LGHL bracket competition and show that you are the best bracketologist among our loyal readers. If you get the highest score, you’ll end up winning a cute t-shirt from our friends at BreakingT.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter as well, as we’ll also be covering Ohio State’s first game of the NCAA Tournament Friday afternoon against Oral Roberts, as well as the rest of the tournament run for the Buckeyes.
