Huskies, Pac-12 Stand to Benefit from CFP Expansion to 12 Teams
Expansion of the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams in 2024 and 2025, officially announced on Thursday and bumping up the realignment schedule by two seasons, could be perfect timing for the University of Washington football program.
After all, Husky coach Kalen DeBoer just might need that long to build a stout defense to match his offensive wizardry if he intends to have the UW challenge for a national championship soon.
On Thursday, the CFP announced the Rose Bowl — the last holdout in speeding up use of the enhanced postseason bracket — had reached agreement on date flexibility and other requirements needed to make a new system work, such as giving up its Pac-12-Big Ten exclusivity arrangement that dates back to 1947 and not always hosting a game on New Year's Day, as is its tradition.
Should the Huskies advance to the upcoming Rose Bowl, they will become one of the last two conference representatives to play in Pasadena against the Big Ten in what now amounts to a farewell tour. This could happen if USC defeats Utah in Friday night's Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas, sending the Trojans into the CFP and giving the Utes a fourth loss.
"I think it would certainly be incredible, coming back here year one after 4-8 being 10-2," DeBoer said, in referencing the UW turnaround in season records, "and have a chance to play in the Rose Bowl, which is the dream of so many guys, especially that live on the West Coast."
The Granddaddy of Them All — the oldest college bowl after hosting its first game in 1902 — finally agreed at times to give up its New Year's Day time slot, which coincides with all sorts of other long-term community festivities such as a popular parade, and offer itself up in a rotating system that will hold an opening round on campus sites, four quarterfinals and the semifinals rotating among the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach bowls, and a title game at a non-bowl site.
"More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students and student-athletes," CFP executive director Bill Hancock said in a prepared statement.
Indeed, everyone has been pushing hard for 12 playoff teams to inject parity into a college football championship format that has grown increasingly stale and top heavy with SEC teams winning year in and year out — much like UCLA did with NCAA basketball in the 1960s and 1970s. The Bruins' success served to force expansion of that event to 64 teams to encourage upsets and make it far more interesting, which it did.
While the SEC had no problem winning five of the past eight championships, things just became far too predictable for fans everywhere else and no doubt hurt TV ratings at times.
In fact, just six different teams filled 25 of the past 32 playoff spots in the current four-team alignment, with Chris Petersen's UW entry one of the outliers advancing in 2016.
The only other Pac-12 team to advance was Oregon in 2014, though USC again stands a good chance to be one of the four teams this time.
In two years, college football's six highest ranked teams will earn automatic playoff berths and be joined by six at-large teams.
The opening round will be played on the third week of December, the quarterfinals around the first of January, the semis during the second week of that month and the championship game will be played in the third week, much later than now.
There is some speculation the NCAA might move up the beginning of the college football season a week earlier in August to make it all work.
The upcoming national championship games for the two remaining four-team playoffs will be played on Jan. 9, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and on Jan. 8, 2024, at NRG Stadium in Houston.
With the new 12-team format in place, the CFP winners will meet in title games on Jan. 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, and on Jan. 19, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
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