Randy Smith
Let me see if I have this right. The College Football Playoff is set with four teams for 2016. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington. The Big 12 champ Oklahoma is out and so is the Big Ten champion Penn State. Two of the Power Five conferences will be shut out right? Wait a minute......Ohio State is seeded third in this year's playoff, yet the Buckeyes not only failed to win the Big Ten, they didn't even win their own division. Penn State won both, but the Buckeyes are in the Playoffs and are facing second-seed Clemson in the semi-finals.
How does this happen? Penn State even beat Ohio State in the regular season.
I know what members of the playoff selection committee are thinking. "The Penn State win over Ohio State was a fluke. The Buckeyes are really a better team." Maybe they are, but Penn State won the East Division, beat Ohio State in the regular season, then beat Wisconsin for the Big Ten title. So why isn't Penn State facing Clemson and Ohio State going to the Rose Bowl? Politics maybe?
In addition even though the Buckeyes are seeded third, they're favored by 3 1/2 points over number two seed Clemson on New Year's Eve. I know......let's just not play the games at all and give the trophy to Alabama. They're going to kill Washington and do the same thing to the Clemson-Ohio State winner. We need at least six teams in the playoff, maybe even eight to make this fair for everybody.
I tell you what..........let's expand the playoffs to six teams. Alabama and Clemson would each get a first round bye. Third seed Ohio State would then face sixth-seeded Michigan, while fourth-seed Washington would then face fifth-seed Penn State. Alabama would face the Ohio State-Michigan winner while Clemson would take on the Penn State-Washington winner. Simple enough, and everybody that should be in the playoffs is in. But this will never happen because it makes too much sense.
The powers that be in college football made us wait for decades just to get a four-team playoff. Expansion is not something they will do quickly. Expanding to six teams means just one more week of playoffs. In December when most students are out of class anyway is the perfect time. Expanding to eight teams also means just one more week of games. So come on guys; let's get this right. It's all about money anyway, so let's expand the treasure chest.
I am still convinced that Michigan is about as good as any team in the country, except for Alabama. The Wolverines should get a chance to play for a national championship. In that six-team scenario I mentioned above, Michigan would face bitter rival Ohio State for a second time. Who wouldn't want to see a second Ohio State-Michigan game in one season? As for Penn State, the Nittany Lions won the Big Ten. Period. End of discussion. I have never been a James Franklin fan but his team deserves to be in the College Football Playoffs. I am not a huge Urban Meyer fan either and, while Ohio State is a great team, if only one of those two teams can get in, it should be Penn State.
Expansion..........not a subject that will be taken lightly in the world of college football.
---
Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.