Opinion: The NCAA needs the twelve team playoff. As most college football fans are aware, the old 4 team playoff system has had its share of great moments(like when Deshaun Watson and the Clemson Tigers beat Alabama with one second left in their National Championship rematch) though there have been many times where teams as well as their fan bases felt as if their team deserved to be in the playoffs and were overlooked by the committee. For example the 2017 UCF knights (who finished 13-0) though there is something to be said about their schedule (they only played 5 ranked teams with the highest rank being #10 Auburn Tigers who they barely beat 34-27), they had the longest winning streak in college football at that time and were ranked 6 in the AP poll. Alabama, who posted a respectable 11-1 record, while all the other college football playoff frontrunners were 12-1 got into the playoffs at the four seed purely off reputation. While UCF got snubbed at 13-0. That being said, any of Alabama’s controversy went away with their win aigainst the number 1 seed Clemson Tigers in the championship, but what's to say UCF wouldn’t have performed just as well. Another example of a fanbase being frustrated with the college football playoff system is the case of the 2014 TCU Horned Frogs. 2014 was the first year the college playoff would be in effect and for TCU it was their third year in the big 12 conference. In their first two years in the big 12 TCU was underwhelming with critics even saying TCU should fire their longtime head coach Gary Patterson. Thankfully they did not because TCU started out their season with a winning streak going 4-0 and upsetting number three in the nation the Oklahoma Sooners 3733. After beating Oklahoma the Horned Frogs were ranked number nine and got to go up against the Baylor Bears. Sadly they would lose their next game to the number five seed 61-58 when Baylor drove down the field at the end of and kicked the game winning field goal making it the highest scoring game between two top-ten teams in the history of the AP poll(Since 1936). After that discouraging loss the horned frogs battled back against number fifthteen the Oklahoma state Cowboys beating them 42-9 and absolutely crushing the Texas Tech Red Raiders 82-27. After that game TCU barely squeezed by number twenty the West Virginia Mountaineers(the only team that beat Baylor in the regular season that year) beating them at the end of the game with a last second field goal. In their last game of the season TCU hammered the Iowa State Cyclones 55-3 and in turn made their record 11-1 and getting ranked #4 and were also awarded the big 12 title alongside the Baylor Bears thus solidifying TCU’s claim to the playoffs 4 seed. It really looked like TCU was going to make it to the playoffs seeing as how successful and fun to watch they were that season, sadly for TCU over in the big ten the number five seed Ohio state Buckeyes led by Cardell Jones had just beat number eleven the Wisconsin Badgers 59-0, unfortunately there was only ONE spot left in the playoffs with the Alabama Crimson Tide at the one seed, the Oregon Ducks at the two seed, and the Florida State Seminoles at the three seed and as most people expected the twelve person voting committee assigned to deciding each teams rank came to the conclusion to rank the bigger branded Ohio State number four and drop TCU to the number six seed. Although if we just had a twelve person playoff system this would have never been a situation This is the twelve team playoff as proposed: Six highest-ranked conference champions get autobid. No conference would automatically qualify and no limit on conference teams. Four highest-rated conference champions would be top four seeds and get first round byes. Teams five through twelve would play on teams five through eight’s home fields. Quarterfinals and semifinals would be in bowl games, with the semifinals on January 1st. I personally think that a twelve game playoff is beneficial for everybody. I think that the NCAA would make more money of televised playoff bowl games, every team would benefit off having the chance to compete in the national championship and in turn getting there players more exposure, with the system we have now there’s never any room in the playoffs for an underdog story but with the proposed twelve team playoff I feel like it's truly possible to have a david and goliath like story of a game. That's why I think we should have a twelve team just for the possibility of something great because even if all the smaller schools that get into the playoffs and eventually get crushed at least they got the equal right to prove that they were the best. Which reminds me of a quote from Paul Angone ““The possibility for greatness and embarrassment both exist in the same space. If you're not willing to be embarrassed, you're probably not willing to be great.” and I feel like that is exactly the NCAA ‘s problem; the NCAA would rather not give these smaller schools a chance because of the possibility of those smaller schools getting dragged against a bigger school instead of giving all deserving teams no matter the size of their school a chance to compete for the national championship. Just the chance to play in the national championship is enough of a reason for a twelve team playoff. I would personally argue that we should keep expanding the playoffs until they’re on par with march madness. But that's for another essay. Now I’m going to tell you my last example on why the four team playoffs just doesn’t cut it, the case of the 2019 Oregon Ducks lead by Justin Herbert. Unlike other teams I've used as examples Oregon did not start out hot losing their first game 21-27 to the number sixteen Auburn Tigers which in turn lowered Oregon's rank to number 16. Though after their first embarrassing loss Oregon started heating up, beating its next five unranked teams with ease averaging nearly 40 points a game and bringing their rank up to number thirteen. Their next game would be their first ranked game since their disappointing season opener and they would be going up against number twenty five the Washington Huskies who’s only notable so far that season was the number twenty one the USC Trojans who they doubled in score beating them 28-14. Although Oregon beat them they only won by four against the number twenty five seed winning 35-31. Even though it wasn’t an impressive win it still got Oregon moved up on the ranks from twelve to eleven. Although Oregon was a good team the one thing they didn’t have on their side was schedule strength with the next three teams they beat being unranked. Even though they had beaten all unranked teams they were doing it rather impressively which is most likely the reason they were moved up from the eleven to the sixth seed.Which brings us to the number one reason oregon wasn’t in the college playoff their next game which was against the unranked Arizona State Sun Devils who had a reputation for beating ranked teams that year notably beating the number eighteen seed and the number fifthteen seed but had been on a four game losing streak. Unfortunately for Oregon’s playoff chances they were beaten 28-31. Oregon’s secondary just couldn’t keep up with the Sun Devils elite wide receiver core including first round draft pick Brandon Aiyuk and sixth round draft pick Frank Darby. After that game Oregon battled back against the Oregon State Beavers beating them 24-10 in their last game of the season. Then they would have to go up against the best team they’d seen all year in the number five Utah Utes in the Pac-12 championship game which would also be their most important game of the year. Luckily the now ranked thirteen Oregon Ducks destroyed the number five ranked and now 11-2 Utes 37-15. Though unfortunately for the Ducks that was their last game before they decided who was in the playoff and all the 12-2 Ducks could do was pray that they would get in. Unfortunately for them the number six ranked Oklahoma Sooners had also just played their last game, beating the number eight ranked Baylor Bears 30-23 in their rematch from earlier in the season in which the Sooners had also won 3431, though neither were nearly as impressive as Oregon's win. Unfortunately for Oregon the CFP committee also sided with 12-2 Oklahoma Sooners(who had an admittedly bad defense that year that was overshadowed by the high scoring offense) and ranked them number four and the 12-2 Oregon Ducks fifth.Oregon went on to win their big ten conference championship against the Wisconsin Badgers 28-27 The Oklahoma Sooners were beaten in the college playoff semifinals by the number one seed the LSU Tigers 63-28. Am I saying that Oregon would have beat LSU honestly I don’t know, i'm just saying that more teams should get the chance to beat LSU like Oregon or Utah or Georgia or Florida all of those teams that year and a couple more should have gotten the chance to prove that they are the best even if they had a slightly busted record. Because sure they might not have been the best at some point that season but what's to say any of those teams weren’t the best at the end of the season. I think that your record should be an indicator that your a good team not the deciding factor for who should be in the playoffs and with a twelve team playoff all these teams that otherwise would’ve gotten snubbed or barely didn’t make won’t have to wonder if they could’ve won the national championship if they had just gotten the chance and that's why I think there should be a twelve team playoff so those teams will never have to wonder if they were the best team that year.
