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Urban Meyer weighs in on expandoing College Football Playoff
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Expansion is coming to the College Football Playoff. There’s serious momentum heading in the direction of a 12-team field, adding eight more competitors to the current four-team format.
Is it good or bad for the sport? Former Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer weighed in on that topic and what the expanded field could mean for players, fans and coaches.
While Meyer seems to be in favor of including more teams in the field and making for a more exciting postseason, he does believe there’s one big negative with the new proposed format. It’s about player safety.
“The fans want it,” Meyer said on the Tim May Podcast. “We were on the outside looking at a few times. And we made it in a couple times, you know, we had to jump two teams to win a national title in 2014. 2015 I think was our best yet, we lost one game by I think, a point or three points, whatever it was and we were out. I think it’s good. You know, I always go back to the student-athlete, you got 85 scholarships. Well we played that 15 games season in 2014.
“If they told us you have one more game after that, you know, you’re on fumes by then. Your players, you have got to be so cautious about practice and making sure you guys are healthy, because those games are going to be those sledgehammer games. I just want to make sure that we’re going to take care of the players right away.”
Meyer led Ohio State to a national title in the first College Football Playoff at the end of the 2014 season. The Buckeyes earned a bid in 2016 but were left out in 2017 and 2018 despite winning B1G titles both seasons.
Ryan Day has led OSU to the College Football Playoff in each of his first two seasons in Columbus.
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