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Paul Finebaum doesn’t expect expanded Playoff to lead to reduction in regular season games

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

By now, you’re well aware that the College Football Playoff is seriously considering an expansion from its four-team format to a 12-team model. It’s been the biggest conversation piece of the offseason.

One of the concerns about an expanded field is the potential of trimming down the regular season by a game or two. With player safety at the front and center of a lot of conversations, there’s some expectation that we could see a schedule reduction within a few years.

Paul Finebaum doesn’t believe that will be the case. Speaking with 3 Man Front this week, the SEC Network host is confident college football will still have a 12-game schedule, as well as a conference championship games.

“I think you’ll hear it, but I think we’ve already moved past that. College coaches, administrators, talk show hosts, we all use whatever we want to as a convenience,” Finebaum said. “Player safety is just something we throw up there when we don’t want to do something. Ultimately, I think we’ll survive it.

“I think the college players can deal with it. The best teams are deep anyway and at the end of the year, that’s really what’s going to separate you from everyone else. If you have depth, if you don’t, you’re not going to survive.”

Under the current format, most national championship teams are playing a 15-game schedule. With the 12-team model, the maximum number of games that could be played would be 17, a two-game increase.

Finebaum is probably correct in saying that there will be a discussion relating to a reduction in regular season games. But it may not be enough of a difference for any rules to be changed in terms of scheduling.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB