UCLA AD on How CFP Format Influences Scheduling

The College Football Playoff format and the Big Ten's stance on it have been a hot topic of discussion in recent weeks, and UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond is backing the conference's push 100 percent because of how it influences one factor -- regular season scheduling.

Time and time again, the end of regular-season college football has become uninteresting to the casual fan. The Big Ten's push for not only a 16-team playoff format, but also giving the conference four automatic bids, has been polarizing, but Jarmond is all for it because of how it strengthens the dog days of he regular season.

"The thing that I love about it from a UCLA perspective is it makes the regular season more compelling," Jarmond said at Big Ten Media Days. "Just for the health of college football -- not just UCLA -- we need meaningful games in late October and November, so fans still come, they still want to see us competing for something.

"You want to bring meaningful games because that helps you from a fan experience standpoint. They want to see you play top-notch talent. I think it's a great move with the automatic qualifiers because it makes the end of the season more compelling, and it allows us to schedule an away [game] that our fans want to see."

Not only does the CFP affect conference scheduling, it also allows the Bruins to schedule a game against a tough nonconference opponent like Utah this season, where an automatic bid doesn't leave you worrying about losing a nonconference game and, instead, allows you to schedule against a good opponent, which is good for the team and the fans.

On how the current (and potential future) CFP format influences scheduling and how the Big Ten's plan would work, Jarmond added, "It's a huge impact. That's why we got to figure it out. You know, is it going to stay at 12? If it does, how long? Is it going to go to 16? Are we going to have the format that [the Big Ten] would prefer? If you have the format that the Big Ten wants, coming into November, you might have 10-12 teams that are a game or two out of that spot, so you would be playing really meaningful ball to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

"That's huge. I think it's good for college football. But, I think it makes the regular season better. We've got to keep fans engaged and feeling like they're watching meaningful football."

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