Eli Drinkwitz Wants Expanded Opportunities for Playoffs: "Committees are a Bad Idea"

College football is always changing. Always.

At the 2025 SEC Media Days, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz advocated for changing the nature of the College Football Playoff, proposing it be expanded from 12 to 24 or 30 teams. The Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC — note the lack of the SEC, as it currently stands by a 16-team model — have supported proposals for 24-team models, but not at all in the way Drinkwitz envisioned.

"I was one of the first to come up with an idea," Drinkwitz said, "And somebody totally screwed it up."

Drinkwitz supported — and seems to still support — play-in games. In what you'd think would be the answer from those holding the same job as Drinkwitz, the head football coach wants his football team's playoff seeding decided based on how it performs on the football field.

The current top alternative? A committee decides which teams they believe are deserving of the CFP spots. Guess which route Drinkwitz supports.

"I am not for giving the committee more opportunities to put teams in the playoffs," Drinkwitz said. "As nice as I can be about it, committees are a bad idea in deciding on who should get in sports arenas. Sports are meant to be played and decided on the field."

Eli Drinkwitz — Missouri Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz addresses the media at the 2023 SEC Football Kickoff Media Days at the Nashville Grand Hyatt on Broadway, Monday, July 17, 2023. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Drinkwitz's motives behind a new-look CFP seem to be rooted deeper in more opportunities, rather than more teams. If more opportunities to reach the CFP results in more teams making it, so be it. But expanding the playoff without giving more on-field opportunities doesn't do any good, from his point of view.

"My idea last year, or suggestion last year, was about play-in opportunities, and I think each conference should have play-in games that create the opportunity to get into the playoffs," Drinkwitz said. "I think it would create more excitement avenues for your fans to be excited. I think if the top eight teams in your conference had an opportunity to play in the playoffs, that gives you a measuring stick for each fan base that makes sense."

Part of the discussed 24-team format that could potentially be implemented would result in the elimination of conference championship games. Drinkwitz is against this, too, for another principle that seems to ring throughout his motives in a new CFP: more opportunities on the gridiron.

Eliminating the conference championship games would take away a chance for a program to make a playoff "run," so to speak. Drinkwitz's play-in proposal seems to support the opposite, with more teams having opportunities for Cinderella runs — they'd still have to do the dirty work to actually complete those runs, though.

Last season, the ACC Championship featured 11-3 Virginia facing off against 9-5 Duke, with a 13-3 Miami squad receiving a bid to the CFP off the legs of an outstanding regular season and missing the ACC Championship due to a conference-record tiebreaker. Duke upset Virginia, but did not earn a spot in the CFP due to not being ranked in the AP Top 25, and the committee elected to put James Madison (12-1 Sun Belt Champions) in instead. Duke completed it's underdog run, but was not chosen for the CFP regardless. Duke not being included in the CFP despite winning a Power Four conference championship could give a glimpse into what affects eliminating conference championship games could have on the postseason.

"I think this elimination of conference championship games, while I understand it as a opportunity to help you win the national championship, doesn't make sense because it puts too much emphasis on a singular outcome," Drinkwitz said. "And we can talk all we want about the process, the process, the process, but don't focus on the outcome, and then everything we're doing in college football is about the outcome. One single champion, and again, that doesn't make sense to me.

"So again, conference championships are important, need to be preserved. They're highly entertaining. They're highly valuable from a monetary standpoint. They're highly valuable from a fan engagement standpoint. So throwing those away so you can get a bad matchup between 24 and 18 doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

Regardless of what decision is eventually made on the CFP, it won't have an affect on the 2026 postseason, as it's locked into 12 teams. Missouri, still hot on the trail for its first CFP appearance under Drinkwitz, will need to be one of the 12 best teams in the eyes of the committee to make its debut.

If the Tigers aren't viewed by the comittee as a top-12 team — in other words, in the top 0.09% of programs — and don't win the SEC Championship, they'll have no chance at making the CFP, bringing us back to Drinkwitz's root of discussion: more opportunities on the field, less on a committee.

"I'm for expanded opportunities for schools in the playoffs," Drinkwitz said. "I just think when you have 138 Division I (FBS) playing schools, we have to have more opportunities and access to the playoffs."

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