There is nothing wrong with trying to think of ways for a sport or a product to improve. Sometimes that means spitballing ideas on a board just to see what sticks. Most of the time, those ideas thrown around will be complete garbage, such as Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun‘s idea to improve the College Football Playoff if/when it expands to an eight-team format.
Calhoun’s idea for the College Football Playoff is to expand to eight teams with each power conference champion receiving an automatic bid, two wild card slots and one guaranteed bid for the best Group of Five conference champion. If it were just that, Calhoun has my support as this is the exact outline I have advocated. But it is how Calhoun wants the Group of Five team to be selected for the guaranteed spot.
Calhoun wants a four-team playoff between Group of Five programs to determine the final College Football Playoff spot.
That, folks, is a horrible idea.
“I think it would, really, bring a wholeness that would be splendid for the spirit of college football,” Calhoun said, according to The Gazette.
No, stop it. Why should the Group of Five have to play additional games on top of their 12-13 game schedule that includes a conference championship game (the Sun Belt will begin playing a championship game in 2018), two more postseason games just to get into the College Football Playoff? That schedule would be brutal, not to mention the wear-and-tear on players playing for programs that lag behind the state-of-the-art facilities the power conference programs have.
Let’s take Navy, for example.
Let’s say the Midshipmen play for and win the AAC Championship. They then go on to play Army the following week in the annual Army-Navy Game. Immediately after that, I assume, they would have to play a semifinal Group of Five playoff game. Win that, and they play again the next week for the Group of Five spot in the College Football Playoff. That leaves little recovery and prep time for their first College Football Playoff opponent, which likely has to be played the following week before the semifinals are played New Years weekend.
Navy may be the extreme scenario, but regardless of what team you use as an example, the overall result is the same. You can’t make cases to improve player safety and have a playoff just to get into a playoff.
I applaud your willingness to think outside the box, Troy Calhoun, but this plan still needs some major retooling.