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Expansion? Here’s what a 16-team College Football Playoff field would look like

Mark Schipper

By Mark Schipper

Published:

If a four team playoff is worth more than half-a-billion dollars to the game’s big stakeholders, can you imagine what a 16-team bracket could generate in revenue and rake? 

The money men who are now in almost total control of college football only care about its traditions to the point they can be converted into the most possible revenue. If blighting a tradition hurts the bottom line, it’s more likely the cartels won’t touch it, but if they think the sport’s core audience can be convinced to accept something new that offers an opportunity to draw in more outside, casual fans, the change is almost guaranteed. 

While the current four-team playoff has been a big hit, it has also been the biggest departure from tradition since the BCS’a one-game championship began in 1998. But when the CFP’s contract is up in 2026 the discussions and arguments about where to take the game going forward are going to intensify. Tradition and the money men are going to go to battle. 

CFB Playoff Edits is a Twitter account that put together a hypothetical 16-team College Football Playoff bracket for 2020. It is quite a fascinating thing to look at because it includes a home-site opening round to start the tournament, incorporates all six of college football’s most traditional bowl games—collectively called the New Year’s Six—and finishes with a seventh national championship game to determine who wears the crown in college football.

Outside of the current top four, which are Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson, and Ohio State in that order, the bracket includes seeding for spots five through sixteen. Take a look below to see the hypothetical matchups.

No matter how much the talk turns to tradition, it’s exciting to see football matchups like that in a playoff scenario. The opportunity for shocking upsets and choas, like the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament provides, are tantalizing prospects.

Whether it’s 16-seed Iowa in Tuscaloosa to play 1-seed Alabama, a seven vs ten matchup in Iowa State against the Miami Hurricanes from Ames, or an eight vs nine game between Georgia and Cincinnati up in the frigid air of Nippert Stadium, there are colorful and unusual games across the bracket. 

Is a sixteen team playoff on the way? Do you want it? 

Mark Schipper

Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.