No doubt you are wondering, "Does the headline refer to the recently-expanded college basketball tournament, or the proposed expansion to the college football playoff?"
My response: yes.
In both cases, expansion is certainly inevitable, in some ways undesirable, but in more ways, I would argue, a positive.
Let's tackle college basketball first. The basic 64-team "main" part of the tournament will remain, it's just that there will be more play-in games. And who is to decree that exactly 2 games featuring bubble teams and exactly 2 games featuring potential 16-seeds is some inviolable number?
Yes, it sucks that these extra at-larges will go almost completely to very mediocre Power 5 teams. I am fully aware that this tournament expansion is for their benefit, and pushed by their backers.
Still, and maybe I'm being naive here, but this might be a rising tide lifts all boats situation. If this past years celebrated underdog, Miami of Ohio, made it into the first four (at-large division), doesn't that mean they would be comfortably in a first 12? And perhaps take with it a team like Belmont?
Another caveat is that my "the more, the merrier" preference is not shared by everyone. It is 100% how I feel, though. I would dig a 128-team tournament. I would dig a 256-team tournament. Then we would see some real Cinderellas — teams from the middle of the pack of their low-major conference shocking their way into the final 64 or 32.
Another argument against, which allows me to segue nicely into football, is that such expansions dilute the regular season. I guess I will buy that argument once I see it meaningfully happen, in any sport at any level, beyond a few isolated exceptions.
Indeed, we've already seen the college football playoff expand from 2 to 4 to 12 just in the last 13 years. I'm not sure what the magic number where the regular season no long matters, but if it's not "12," I doubt it will be "24," either.
You have to remember, teams will be playing for byes, and seeding. And they will. It's the same reason NFL teams rarely rest their starters in the last week unless they have already locked up their seed or are eliminated from playoff contention.
Let's also point out that FCS has had a 24-team playoff for years. I know there are issues, logistical and otherwise, that make this harder for it to work in FBS than it does for FCS. But you can't tell me it's doable for FCS and impossible for FBS, particularly since a 24-team playoff would take the place of conference championship games.
Even if I am dead wrong, and teams will happily rest starters once it's clear they are in the field, seeding be damned, I will only believe teams will rest starters in Ohio State/Michigan or Auburn/Alabama when I see it. That's the boogie monster anti-expansionists love to pull out, and I can't express strongly enough how much I do not believe that will happen.
Even if a 24-team playoff doesn't come this upcoming season or the one after, it's coming. It's profitable. With the possible exception of the NHL, that's what U.S. playoffs do: expand, expand, expand.
So just enjoy the extra games.
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