Subscribe
Follow Us
Penn State football head coach James Franklin arguably has the best team he's ever had coming into the 2025 season, with a loaded roster and the hiring of Jim Knowles at defensive coordinator. The Nittany Lions went on a massive run in the College Football Playoff last season. It was the first season of the expanded 12-team playoff, and with the playoff expanding even more, Franklin mentioned how it will only get harder.
NBC Sports' Nicole Auerbach interviewed Franklin. In the interview, Franklin talked about how hard it is to get into the playoffs. What makes it even harder now is that, in his view, the gap between the top five teams and the teams down to the top 15 is the biggest in the sport.
James Franklin elaborated on what he sees as the biggest challenge in the College Football Playoff system: “You are fighting, scratching, clawing to get there. … I would argue that when you get into the top 4-5 teams in college football, those gaps between the top 4-5 and the top 15 are more significant than any other area.”
The Penn State football coach's argument rings true with some statements made by people against expansion. College football is a sport that is not balanced because top teams collect as much talent as possible, so when you continue to expand the postseason, by definition, you are going to have massive gaps in competitiveness.
Article Continues Below
Last season, the most significant criticism of the expanded playoffs was the blowouts in the first round. Despite the College Football Playoff bringing in a massive amount of viewers, these blowouts will only get even bigger and more frequent, despite how much administrators and the TV networks want the revenue.
With College Football Playoff expansion on the horizon, the Power Four conferences have not been able to decide on the new format. The debate seems to be between the 4+4+2+2+1+3 or 5+11 formats. The entire process was restarted with nothing finalized, and the format needs to be finalized by December.
Franklin's overall point will continue to stand even more; however, the new format will be finalized. The issue with the sport is that the more you expand the postseason, the more dilution occurs overall, not just for the viewers, but for all participants. It also just gets much harder the more teams play.
