It finally happened.
After years of rumors and incessant speculation, the news broke Friday afternoon.
Starting in 2026, the College Football Playoff will expand from 4 to 12 teams.
The top 4 seeds will get first round byes.
Seeds 5 through 12 will face off for the opportunity to get into the quarterfinals.
On the surface level, this seems awesome – December Madness – especially for schools like Wisconsin.
Always knocking on the door, but perenially on the outside looking in.
My greatest concern is this: there’s already a significant dropoff between #2 and #4.
There’s a steep dropoff between #4 and #5.
The dropoff will be precipitous from #5 to #12.
Heck, #3 Georgia beat #11 Oregon 49 to 3 this weekend.
Do we really need to see that in December?
Will this yield some occasional upsets and exciting moments? Absolutely.
In the end, though, it’ll still be the Alabama’s, Georgia’s, and Ohio State’s reigning supreme.
Inviting more friends to the party is great, but the popular kids are always going to have the last dance.