Kirk Herbstreit's Biggest Fear With 24-Team College Football Playoff

The move of college football to a 24-team College Football Playoff feels like a virtually done deal, and it's giving many of the top broadcasters in the nation a chance to hold forth on the topic. Few have as much sway as the cast of College GameDay, where Kirk Herbstreit used his platform to discuss his biggest concern with the expansion of the Playoff.

Herbstreit's Big Concern

"My big thing with college football, the thing I've always appreciated, [is] the regular season games," said Herbstreit. "Late August, early Septemeber, we get so excited for those games. It's four months away from the Playoff, but it's important. All these years when we went from four [teams in the Playoff[] to 12, I think we were concerned, is the regular season still going to feel like it matters? Now, we go from 12 to 24. My fear is I just hope it doesn't diminish those meaningful games that we get excited about like this weekend, last weekend.... That feeling of win, advance and lose, you're out. Taking that away kind of hurts."

Will a Broader Field Impact the Regular Season?

Saban and Herbie — Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit both shared reservations about the upcoming 24-team Playoff on College GameDay. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Herbstreit's concern of devaluing the regular season is obviously genuine. Of course, before 2014, all of college football competed to reach a singular championship game. Even a loss was catastrophic. With four teams, a single loss might not doom a team, but a strong overall resume was still required. The last two seasons have seen a pair of three-loss teams reach the CFP. It seems almost inevitable in a topsy-turvy SEC that at least one more will join the field this year.

Moving ahead, a 24-team certainly makes an 8-4 Playoff team viable, and perhaps even an exceptional 7-5 team. There's certainly validity in the question of whether even an 8-4 team deserves an opportunity at a national championship. While college football generally has a tight bubble of championship opportunity, an expanded field can create chaos-- like college baseball in 2022 when Ole Miss went from the 64th team in the NCAA Tournament field to the College World Series champion. One instance of an 8-4 team getting hot at the right time can certainly undo much of the natural momentum of the college football regular season.

A Secondary Concern

Herbstreit did mention a topic discussed at greater length by Nick Saban, but a 24-team playoff will obviously implicate expectations on head coaches at a variety of schools, leading to a "get in (the Playoff) or get out (of your job)" mentality. But that was a secondary concern for Herbstreit, who aligned himself with the common fan in his biggest criticism.

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