Why South Carolina fans should join SEC, ESPN in opposing 24-team playoff

Sometimes bigger doesn't always mean better, especially within the beautiful and unpredictable sport that is college football. Just two years after the College Football Playoff expanded from four to 12 teams, the powers that be within the sport are trying to expand the field yet again, by adding another 12 teams to the current bracket.   

Yes, the College Football Playoff is reportedly trying to expand to 24 teams. This week, the ACC joined forces with the Big 12 and Big Ten as conferences in favor of the expansion. But two important players that impose serious sway within the sport are reportedly firmly against the move. 

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has stated that he and his conference's athletic directors are holding firm in favor of expanding to just 16 teams. And apparently the network that carries most of the CFP games, ESPN, doesn't want expansion either. ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips told reporters this week that the network "has been pretty clear" that it wants to stay at 12 teams, adding that it would maybe be open 14 but wants no more than 16.   

For now, these appear to just be talks that are ongoing. It was already announced earlier this year that the 12-team CFP will continue for at least the 2026 season, although expansion has already been discussed in recent years. In March 2024, ESPN signed a six-year $7.8 billion for the rights of the event through 2031-32, which won't change regardless of the size of the field. 

While on the surface, expanding to 24 teams might sound like a halfway decent idea. That's an additional 12 extra spots for teams during any given season that are worthy of being included in the postseason, and a shot at the national championship. For South Carolina, a 9-4 Gamecock team like the one head coach Shane Beamer put together in 2024 would likely be enough to put the Gamecocks in a 24-team field. 

But there are several reasons why expansion to an ostentatious 24 teams is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.  

Why Gamecock fans should oppose a 24-team playoff

Two big reasons why South Carolina fans should oppose doubling the size of the existing playoff? The result would be a complete devaluing of both the regular season and conference championship games. 

The regular season in itself is what truly and wholly makes this sport the absolute greatest in the world. Unlike the NFL, each and every week, college football can produce some of the most unexpected playoff-altering upsets during the regular season. 

Just this past season, we saw upsets that had real playoff consequences, like Florida upsetting a Texas team at home, which ultimately kept the Longhorns out of the postseason. SMU knocking off Miami in double-overtime seemed to majorly keep the Canes out of the playoff—until the ACC decided to let a five-loss Duke team win its conference. 

Speaking of the Canes! South Carolina's 17-14 win over Clemson in 2024 also seemed to ruin the Tigers' playoff hopes—until Miami losing 42-38 to Syracuse opened the door for Clemson in the ACC title game and playoff. South Carolina also helped deliver the first blow to then- No. 3 Georgia's CFP hopes early in 2019 with the Gamecocks' 20-17 upset.       

While not every upset in college football results in a team getting knocked out of the playoff, there have been some incredible ones in recent years. Michigan's upset over Ohio State in 2024 comes to mind, and Vanderbilt's 40-35 upset over No. 1 Alabama the same year marked the Commodores first-ever victory over a top-ranked team in program history. In 2022, Tennessee beat Alabama for the first time in 15 years, and their fans taking down the goal posts will live in college football lore forever. 

A 24-team playoff would largely take the air out entirely of upsets and moments like these, given that the regular season wouldn't mean half as much as it does now. Not only do these moments and games make this sport so damn great, it's what separates it from virtually everything else. 

While the CFP didn't arrive until 2014, some of South Carolina's most memorable upsets like beating No. 1 Alabama in 2010 or knocking off No. 5 Missouri in overtime in 2013 just wouldn't feel the same without a meaningful regular season. 

And of course, there are the conference championship games, which would become virtually obsolete with a 24-team system. Per CBS Sports' reporting, the games themselves are lucrative, and there would be some serious lost revenue in losing those games altogether.

We've seen conference championship games drastically alter the playoff field, such as Alabama making it in after it ended Georgia's 29-game win streak with a 27-24 victory in the SEC title game in 2023. In 2014, the committee put Ohio State in over Baylor or TCU after the Buckeyes' 59-0 victory over No. 13 Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game. 

Conference title games have also produced some of college football's greatest games, like Indiana upsetting Ohio State 13-10 this past year, Clemson beating SMU 34-21 in 2024's ACC Championship, or Kansas State's 31-28 overtime victory over TCU in the Big 12 in 2022.    

Look, I'd be lying if I said a March Madness-style tournament doesn't at least sound intriguing for college football. And of course, I am aware of how much money expanding the playoff would bring to both the schools and respective conferences.

But college football has a pretty good thing going here. Creating a longer postseason than the NFL has while taking away the two things that make this sport as great as it is is far from the direction to go here.  

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