Aubrey’s Analysis

There is one portion of each sport’s season that everyone looks forward to. Where the hard work has paid off, the anticipation has been built, and fans across the nation sit on the edge of their seats to see if their team can achieve greatness: the postseason.

Following recent news, the NCAA is nearing a decision on whether the College Football Playoff should be expanded to 24 teams. It’s a decision that could change how the sport is played entirely.

Now, the SEC hasn’t shied away from supporting its claim that it is the best conference in all of college football. Especially when you look at the new schedule structure that was implemented this year.

Nine conference games with at least one nonconference matchup against either Notre Dame or an ACC, Big Ten or Big 12 opponent. However, the expansion to 24 teams no longer grants bragging rights to a certain conference and takes away any meaning of a conference championship.

Compare this to how the FHSAA operates with high school sports. For the 1A-6A classifications, the top eight ranked teams earn a postseason berth, with the district champions earning an automatic bid. For the Rural classification, it’s the top four.

This means every game that a team will play during the regular season has weight behind it. To earn a chance to play in the postseason, each team has to be its very best and win as many games as possible.

It also puts a lot more meaning behind district tournaments. When looking at Crestview volleyball, the Bulldogs finished the season with a 9-13 overall record. But if things played out differently at the District 1-6A volleyball tournament, they would have been granted an automatic bid to the postseason.

That’s what makes these sports so exciting! I mean, look at March Madness, for example. The bracket is composed of 64 teams, and oftentimes a “Cinderella team” makes a decent run that no one was expecting.

Now, we could play devil’s advocate here and say, “Well, why couldn’t that happen in football?” and to be honest, we’ve seen what happens. Just last year, in the 2025 College Football Playoff, Jon Sumrall took Tulane to its first-ever berth in the playoffs.

The Green Wave then met Ole Miss out of the SEC and quickly had their postseason run come to an end with a final score of 41-10. James Madison also left in the first round when the Dukes took on Oregon and lost 51-34.

I mean, sure, maybe one day a smaller school will make a decent run in the playoffs, but what happens when they reach a Notre Dame, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 or SEC school? Will the outcome be any different, or will we continue to see the same 10 schools we see year in and year out?

Not to mention the number of bowl games this expansion takes away from. There are already six bowl games being utilized under the current College Football Playoff.

There’s a lot more I could say about this topic, but I only have so much space. So, I’ll leave with this: more doesn’t always equal better.