If there’s one thing the world of college football doesn’t need is more bowl games. Despite the fact that there are 40 bowl games, it looks like discussion has begun for the Group of Five conferences when it comes to a possible playoff.
It was initially reported by Mark Schlabach saying that the discussion has started between the Sun Belt Conference, American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, and Mountain West about creating an equivalent of the college football playoff for the smaller schools. In a world filled with participation trophies, having a playoff for these schools would seem like a continuation of that narrative.
However, it could be a better decision than having an eight team playoff. Here’s a case for and against a Group of Five Playoff.
The Case For a Group of Five Playoff
A Group of Five playoff is a good thing because it would give these smaller schools something to play for besides bragging rights. The odds of a team from the smaller conferences making the College Football Playoff are slim to none.
For instance, look at Western Michigan. PJ Fleck’s team ended the regular season undefeated before getting waxed against Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl this past Monday. Many people liked the fact that there was a team that ended the season undefeated, but it was who they faced off against that makes what they did not mean as much when it comes to making a case for the CFP. One of the biggest marks against them is that there were no teams from the Power Five conferences on the schedule.
When you look at the Houston Cougars and what they were able to do this season, you can make a stronger case for them if they were undefeated. They had two Power Five schools that ended up having good records and beat both of them. If they were undefeated, the resume of the Cougars would merit a chance to crash the party.
With the rare chance of a good undefeated season from a Group of Five team, it would actually benefit these schools with the added exposure of a playoff and having the best of the best from your own conference face off should be a fun scenario for fans of college football. Another aspect that could make this a reality is that the Sun Belt will be having a conference title game in the near future, which would make it easier for the committee to decide who would go.
The Case Against a Group of Five Playoff
There are already 40 bowl games on the docket and there are not enough teams sometimes that are at the minimum of six wins. The playoff would create three more games on the schedule which would make advertisers and the Worldwide Leader (or whichever network would pick up this sporting event) salivate at the amount of dollars they could make.
However, this would make more teams at 5-7 being put into the bowl games that these better teams from the group of five would typically be in. Looking at this past bowl season, three teams that were below .500 became bowl eligible. Imagine how many more teams would be involved in bowl games that had five wins. It’s a slippery slope and could eventually lessen the meaning of bowl games like the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
-Clint Domingue