With all the recent debate surrounding whether the CFP should expand from its current four-team format, each of the Power Five conference commissioners earlier this month at the Learfield Intercollegiate Athletic Forum weighed in with their thoughts. While a couple expressed an openness to expansion under the right circumstances, the overall theme was that adding more teams to the playoff will not happen any time soon due to insufficient support from university presidents.
OPEN TO IDEAS: Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said that while he is "satisfied with how the system has worked with four teams, he's not opposed to exploring change" to the CFP. Swarbrick: "You've got to be open as a business to looking at your business. It doesn't mean that there's a need to change or that there's momentum to change, but every business should examine itself and the core elements of what it does." He added, "That doesn't mean anything's gonna change. It doesn't mean there's momentum for that. But I do think you've got to be open to having discussions like that" (USA TODAY, 12/28).
DIFFERING OPINIONS: ESPN.com's Alex Scarborough noted Alabama coach Nick Saban "remains steadfastly opposed to expanding" the CFP. Saban said that he feels expanding the field "leads to an undercutting of the 'self-gratification' for players that comes with going to bowl games not associated with the national championship." Saban: "The playoff ... continues to expand to minimize the importance of those games, maybe to the point where those games won't even exist. I'm not sure that is the best thing, overall, for college football" (ESPN.com, 12/27). However, Temple interim coach Ed Foley "bemoaned the lack of access to the CFP for Group of Five teams." Foley: "How can you have a national champion, but only half the teams are eligible to win the championship? There's no national championship. What we're doing right now is wrong" (AP, 12/26).
