It took decades to get a College Football Playoff in place but it might not take that long in order to expand the format the way things are going.
TCU head coach Gary Patterson, who was famously in the center of the playoff argument in 2014, appeared on Dallas/Ft. Worth’s KTCK The Ticket on Wednesday and certainly seemed to add his name to the growing list advocating for moving to a six- or eight-team format for the event going forward.
“I just think there’s enough parity that any of those six to eight can beat anybody on any given day,” Patterson said, according to the Dallas Morning News.
That wasn’t the only postseason talk the now-second longest tenured head coach in the country discussed either. The Horned Frogs famously missing out on the final four back in 2014 as co-champions of the Big 12 played a big part in the league adding a title game starting in 2017 and it seems like Patterson is acutely aware that will not become a magic bullet for the conference getting a team into the playoff going forward.
“Everybody said we have to have a championship game,” the coach added. “Well, I just watched a team not be in a championship game in the Big Ten and get in the playoff.”
He would of course be referring to the fact that Ohio State was in last year’s CFP semifinal instead of Penn State, which won the conference and beat the Buckeyes head-to-head.
ESPN and most of the college football braintrust seem intent on keeping the playoff at four teams for the foreseeable future so Patterson may have to wait a while before expansion comes to the postseason. Something says he is probably far from the last to suggest moving past four teams though.