Ohio State won the national championship, but access was the greatest beneficiary of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
Tripling the size of the event allowed the CFP to accomplish its primary mission. The regular season was more meaningful to more teams, thereby creating high stakes in dozens of games that otherwise would have carried little relevance.
What had been an exclusive club in every aspect — from the regional makeup of the participants to the ethnic diversity of the head coaches — was opened to the masses.
That brought new layers of intrigue and controversy and served to deepen the sport’s resonance from coast to coast and conference to conference.
The enhanced access produced several major winners:
— The last team standing, Ohio State, would not have qualified for the CFP without expansion.
The Buckeyes lost twice during the regular season and were sixth in the selection committee’s final rankings. Had the old format remained in place, they would have watched the semifinals from home.
Instead, the nation’s most talented team was granted a second chance and produced one of the best finishing runs the sport has seen.
The Buckeyes took down No. 7 (Tennessee), No. 1 (Oregon), No. 3 (Texas) and No. 5 (Notre Dame) to claim their first championship in 10 years and their ninth overall.
— Without playoff expansion, the semifinals would have matched No. 1 Oregon against No. 4 Penn State and No. 3 Georgia against No. 3 Texas.
In other words, two Big Ten teams, two SEC teams and two rematches of the conference championships. The ACC, Big 12 and Group of Five would have been excluded yet again.
(This presumes the selection committee would have voted the same way with four teams as it did with 12, which might not have been the case.)
It’s clear the format needs to change. Either the top-four seeds should be reserved for the highest-ranked teams, not conference champions, or the teams participating in the quarterfinals should be reseeded. Top-ranked Oregon facing No. 6 Ohio State in the quarterfinals was a major flaw.
But the access itself is magnificent.
The Group of Five participant, Boise State, was worthy of the Fiesta Bowl stage against Penn State, while the Big 12 champion, Arizona State, took Texas to double overtime in a Peach Bowl for the ages.
— CFP expansion coincided with a substantial increase in the TV audience for the traditional bowls, according to ratings information released by ESPN.
Viewership for Bowl Season was up 14 percent year-over-year on ESPN platforms, while bowl games on ABC averaged 5 million viewers — the network’s largest audience in 11 years.
We see a correlation.
Expansion enhanced the value of the regular season, deepening fan interest in more teams throughout October and November. That interest carried over into the postseason, pushing ratings high enough to make us wonder if more bowls will be created in coming years.
The demand clearly exists. Why wouldn’t ESPN push for greater supply? Bowls generate better ratings than billiards, or the NBA.
— The final winner from CFP expansion, or so we hope, is diversity in future head coaching hires at the top level of the sport.
Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman became the first Black coach to reach the championship game, an overdue development reflective of circumstances, opportunity and Freeman’s own aptitude.
What do we mean by that?
Circumstances: The Irish were ranked fifth at the end of the regular season. Without expansion, Freeman would not have set foot on playoff turf, leaving Penn State’s James Franklin as the only Black coach to ever reach the CFP.
Opportunity: This piece requires a deeper explanation, one that reaches deep into the sport’s history of haves and have-nots.
First, we should point out that each of the 11 playoff-era champions had previously won the national title. Michigan and Ohio State, the Big Ten’s back-to-back winners in 2023-24, have 12 and nine championships, respectively.
In fact, it has been 28 years since there was a first-time champion: Florida in the 1996 season.
The bluer the blood, the more likely a title will follow.
How does that connect to Freeman’s groundbreaking postseason? (He is the first Asian American coach to reach the title game, as well.)
In a sport defined by royalty, half of the 10 winningest major college programs have never employed a Black head coach: Ohio State, Alabama, Nebraska, Georgia and USC.
And prior to this season, when Michigan hired Sherrone Moore, that number was six of 10.
Dive one level deeper, and the situation looks even worse.
John Blake lasted three years at Oklahoma. Same with Charlie Strong at Texas and Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame.
Filter for the playoff era, and here’s what you get:
Across 11 years, the 10 winningest programs — that’s 110 total seasons — have been led by Black coaches for just 15: one for Moore, three for Freeman and 11 for Franklin, who took charge in State College in 2014.
Freeman is obviously a terrific young coach on every level, and he has built the Irish to last. But would he ever reach the brink of the national title at Boston College or NC State or Minnesota or Oklahoma State?
Decades of evidence suggest it would be unlikely, even with the expanded format.
Credit Freeman for maximizing the opportunity. Hopefully, his success will lead to similar hiring decisions by members of the sport’s ruling class.
It’s all about access.
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