Editorial

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick Supports Expanding The College Football Playoff

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David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick thinks the College Football Playoff needs to expand.

We’re nearing a decision on expanding the CFP, and the field is going to expand to 12 teams. It sounds like the man leading the Fighting Irish thinks it’s not just a great idea, but needs to happen. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)

Swarbrick told Irish Sports Daily the following when asked if expanding the playoff was important:

Very. In a way we haven’t really been able to articulate publicly yet, because we want the input of people within college athletics first, but there are two very important aspects of it that go to your question.

The first is that football players have such a smaller opportunity to participate in the postseason than their peers. Most college sports, you have a 21 to 24-percent chance of being in the postseason. In football (at the Football Bowls Subdivision level), you’ve got a 3-percent chance [of making the current, four-team playoffs).

And going to a bowl game is not a substitute for that. You want to try and play for a championship. So expanding, finding a way to expand that opportunity, became very important to us.

It’s hard to disagree with Swarbrick or anyone else who supports the playoff expanding. At this point, I’m not sure how anyone could be against expansion.

The current format is a field of only four teams. That’s a very tiny fraction of the teams in college football, and we see the same teams in the playoff time and time again.

Expansion has to happen if the sport wants to bring in as many fans as possible.

 

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With a 12-team field that features home games in the first round, it’s not impossible to see a scenario where Notre Dame hosts Georgia or LSU in December.

How could anyone possibly be against a situation like that? It’s a dream come true for college football fans.

 

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Expansion is happening. Either get with it or get out of the way.