With the College Football Playoff rapidly approaching, fans, pundits, and coaches alike seemingly all have opinions on who should and shouldn't get a chance at the January dance.
Some value the strength of schedule, others point differential, and others still the “style” by which a team wins, which is borderline impossible to quantify.
Taking to social media to weigh in on the debate, ex-NFL coach Jon Gruden broke down how he would change the selection process, which would involve expanding the field and keeping the playing field level.
“We're picking 12 teams. I just want to know this. Why in the hell are we having these conference games? I mean, to determine who the Big Ten champion is? To determine who the SEC champion is? When I was in the NFC South, we played everybody in our division twice a year. So it was pretty easy to see who was the best in our division. I just point this out to you. Here's Indiana playing Ohio State for the Big Ten championship. Meanwhile, Oregon is sitting at home getting a bye week before the tournament starts,” Gruden explained.
“What logic is that? Then you got Alabama playing Georgia for the SEC championship, and you got a team like Ole Miss and Texas A&M. They're fresh as a daisy, man. They don't even have to play a game, but they get into the tournament.
“What kind of logic is this? That's like the top two seeds in the NFC. Let's say the Chicago Bears and the LA Rams having to play to see who the number one seed of the NFC is before we go to the playoffs. Meanwhile, we got everybody else that's in the playoffs sitting at home having a bye week. Does that make sense? H*ll no, it doesn't make sense.”
Fortunately, Gruden has a solution to this situation: Expand the playoffs to 16 games. Allow the conference game to happen, with the winners and losers of the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 get into the dance, and the ACC winner getting in only if they are ranked, but then schedule five more games in big markets between ranked teams to decide on the final spots, be that five or six depending on who wins in the ACC.
Is Gruden's system perfect? Not necessarily, but he believes in it, as Conference Champions shouldn't be punished for being successful while lesser teams get a bye.
“These teams that are playing the Conference Championship, they don't deserve to be penalized, potentially lose a starter or two, and not have these guys for the finals, man, for the championship,” Gruden declared. “No, no. You don't make the highest-ranked teams play, and the lower-ranked teams sit and lobby for position. No, that doesn't happen.”
How I would fix the College Football Playoff. pic.twitter.com/wbYu6k6mty
— Jon Gruden (@BarstoolGruden) December 4, 2025



















