'Expansion Is Coming': Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher Weighs in on CFP Format
Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher isn't opposed to going back to the old ways of college football. After all, he benefited from BCS rankings during his time at Florida State.
Fisher, who enters his fifth season in College Station, won a national title over Auburn in 2013 because the computer designated them the nation's top team. A year later, he found his way into the inaugural College Football Playoffs with the Seminoles but lost to Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
“I was a traditionalist. I was fine with the way the old things were,” Fisher told reporters at the Houston Touchdown Club event earlier this month. “I hate to say it, but I really was.”
Fans and boosters across the NCAA landscape continue to clamor for a CFP expansion, and for valid reasons. The top four that make the cut each year usually won't finish in the same location during the playoffs' final ranking period.
Teams fighting between the No. 4 and No. 5 seed nearly mirror the same results. Why should one be rewarded and the other sink due to a minor qualification?
Fisher is in the category of expansion to begin soon. A 13-person committee shouldn't have control over which team looks to be the best that season. A football field and 60 minutes would rather suffice.
“It needs to expand (with) what we’re trying to do … and where we’ve taken the game,” Fisher said. “I think it has to unless you went back to (the old way).”
A&M has been one of several teams snakebitten by the CFP's current format. During the COVID-19 season of 2020, the Aggies picked up a monumental win over then-No. 3 Florida just one week after falling to top-ranked Alabama. From there, A&M would finish the year 8-1, just missing out of the SEC West title.
They won more games than Ohio State and fought for the No. 3 or No. 4 seed. Instead, the Buckeyes took home the third-place ranking in large part due to their Big 10 title. Notre Dame — which finished undefeated in regular-season play — claimed the final spot as the runner-up in the ACC.
"I thought we were the second-best team in the country,” Fisher said this offseason. “I thought we should have been in the playoff, and I would have liked to have one more shot at (Alabama).”
The rest was history. Notre Dame would lose to Alabama in Arlington, Clemson fell to Ohio State in New Orleans and the Crimson Tide prevailed for another national title. The Aggies closed out the year with a 41-27 Orange Bowl victory over North Carolina.
How different things could have been. A&M would have likely garnered the No. 5 or No. 6 seed should the playoffs have expanded to eight. It would have led to a showdown between the Irish or Buckeyes, thus justifying which team was superior for those 60 minutes on the way to a national title.
Expansion talks began in 2019 and since have stalled due to the inability to come to a decision of seeding and format. During a recent interview, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said that if the format stays the same, the committee must consider if the SEC features the proper top four teams in the country.
The SEC is one of two conferences to have multiple representatives in the CFP Georgia and Alabama both met in the national title game during the 2018 and 2021 seasons. The ACC saw Clemson and Notre Dame represented in 2020 when the Irish joined a conference to play during the pandemic.
The conference has been represented in the playoffs each season by either Alabama, LSU or Georgia. More could be on the way if the expansion were to happen, and the Aggies are an example of where expansion might benefit all due to a one-loss regular season.
Perhaps there's a tad of bitterness in his tone. He doesn't care. The frustration from the front office has left the Aggies on the outside looking in during past seasons.
Without change, it could happen again soon.
“Once changed, you need to advance and keep the bowls alive and make them significant,” Fisher said. “Do all the things you have to do (to expand), in my opinion.”
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