Florida Football entered the 2024 season with outside expectations of making the playoffs but ultimately was out of the running by week three. After finishing the year with a four-game winning streak, the expectations for Florida in 2025 are playoffs or bust as the Gators hope to ride the wave of DJ Lagway into the postseason.
The 12-team playoff setup allows for a margin of error but still requires teams to go 10-2 to make the dance. A potential new proposal could even further widen that margin of error, and even though it would benefit Florida going forward, it doesn't mean college football as a whole is better off.
Florida Football: Everyone Is A Winner
Based on a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, the SEC and Big Ten are pushing hard to expand the playoffs to 14 or even 16 teams. More relevant to the SEC, both leagues are also pushing for up to four automatic bids, while the ACC and Big 12 would get two auto bids.
Part of the discussion also hints at overhauling the way conferences do their conference championships. The ACC, for example, has floated turning the last regular season game into a semifinal matchup, with the winners playing in the conference title game.
Let Me In
Florida, being a member of the SEC, would obviously benefit from this proposal. The Gators still would have been left out of a 16-team playoff in 2024 and, frankly, would have been left out in all three years of the Billy Napier Era, but with just marginal improvement, the Gators could sneak into that group.
But if you were among the fans who felt expanded playoffs in 2024 diminished the regular season, one can only shudder at the thought of what a 16-team field with auto bids would do.
The highlight of Florida's season was beating Ole Miss to knock them out of the playoffs. Likewise, Oklahoma knocked out Alabama, while Syracuse knocked out Miami with late-season upsets.
This new model would render all three of those upsets meaningless, as Ole Miss, Alabama, and Miami would have all made the playoffs with an expanded field.
And as 50 Cent once said, joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain. In the same way, those losses wouldn't sting as much, and the danger is that winning won't feel as special. This new model would reward teams for going 9-3 in perpetuity.
College football is not alone in wanting to keep expanding their playoffs. The NFL and MLB have expanded recently and college basketball is also in talks about expanding their tournament.
But sometimes less is more and while the 12 team playoff was overall a good thing for college football, there is a risk and danger in expanding it too far.
Because once we allow 16 teams in, what is to stop anyone from going to 24 teams like they have in FCS?