The college football landscape seems to be changing by the day, with NIL deals, transfer portal tweaks and conference realignment promising to change the NCAA forever. The College Football Playoff is the latest to be swept up into the winds of change. It's a topic that came up at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday, with Ohio State football athletic director Gene Smith making an eye-opening statement on the possibility of the College Football Playoff expanding to 16 teams. Here's what Smith said, per ESPN.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told ESPN on Tuesday that the talk around a potential 16-team College Football Playoff is growing.
“Sixteen just seems to be out there,” Smith said. “You can't ignore it.”
Smith clarified that this notion hasn't been discussed formally, but added that it has come up consistently in the discourse about the CFP.
According to ESPN, Ohio State football athletic director Gene Smith said that “you can't ignore” the chatter about a 16-team College Football Playoff while speaking to reporters at Big Ten Media Days.
The Big Ten actually voted against expanding the College Football Playoff last year, joining the ACC and the Pac-12. However, the chatter and speculation doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, as noted by the Ohio State athletic director.
Clearly, many voices in the NCAA are tiring of the current four-team model, not just because of the limited access but also due to the limited broadcast outreach as well. The current model is televised only on ESPN.
More teams would also mean more eyeballs tuned into the likes of Ohio State football- and other big-name squads. It's no wonder that the chatter hasn't stopped.
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