The ACC is calling for an expanded College Football Playoff.
After yet another controversial final playoff field, conference commissioner Jim Phillips laid out his case for allowing more than the current 12-team format at the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum on Wednesday.
“There’s such heartache at that cutline right now,” Phillips said. “And, what I would say is, my barometer about what’s enough and what’s not enough is — if you’re leaving teams out of the playoff that could win a national championship, then you don’t have the right number.”
Phillips harkened back to two recent ACC teams that just barely missed the playoff despite featuring strong resumes.
“We experienced it two seasons ago with Florida State, the only undefeated team to not make the Playoff at 13-0. And that’s when it was at four. Last year, one of our schools was in a similar situation, SMU and Alabama. SMU was in and Alabama was out. But all of the schools, right now, at the cutline deserve to be in.”
With the deadline to expand the playoff for next season coming in late January, Phillips expressed some urgency to make it happen.
“I would prefer not to wait another year, but I only speak for the ACC,” Phillips said.
Phillips’ comments come after Notre Dame, which is a conference member of the ACC in 24 other sports — but not football — was snubbed from the playoff despite riding a 10-game winning streak and finishing the season 10-2.
The final at-large spot went to the ACC’s Miami, which also finished 10-2, although it had ranked below Notre Dame until the playoff committee’s final rankings earlier this week.
Phillips follows several other conference commissioners who have also advocated for a bigger playoff field.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said earlier this year that he supported a 16-team playoff with just five automatic bids.
The Big Ten’s Tony Pettiti had his eyes set even higher, floating the idea of increasing the playoff to 24 or 28 teams in August.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
