Tennessee football: Does CFB Playoff expansion talk help the Vols?

The College Football Playoff will inevitably expand from four teams one day. Does an expansion to more teams help the Vols?

After four seasons of the College Football Playoff, fans and coaches around the nation want a change. A lot of talk has come from coaches at Big Ten media days this past week.

First-year head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers is all in for an eight-team playoff. And, we don’t blame him after what happened last year. Scott Frost took the UCF Golden Knights to an undefeated season. In fact, they were the only undefeated team in the nation. But, if we are all honest with ourselves, UCF didn’t deserve to be in the playoff last season.

Sure, they were undefeated, which is never easy, but if they played an SEC schedule they wouldn’t have won ten games. Even winning eight games would have been a stretch.

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Fellow Big Ten coach, Jim Harbaugh, is in favor of a 16-team playoff. That is mainly because his Michigan Wolverines will never be good enough to get a top four ranking in the country. But, do we listen to anything Harbaugh says anymore?

We aren’t even going to waste time talking about a 16 team playoff other than the fact its the dumbest idea ever.

But, to make our point, a 9-3 Michigan State team would have been the 16th seed in the playoff last season. Even more, LSU was ranked 17th. Does anyone think LSU deserved a shot at a National Championship after losing to Troy? Didn’t think so.

So, moving to eight teams is more plausible. However, would the move help the Vols in the future?

Honestly, it is tough to tell. In the four years of the playoff, the committee has done their best to be fair to the power-five conferences. The appearances are tight with the SEC (5) leading the way, followed by the ACC (4), Big Ten (3), Pac-12 (2), and Big 12 (2).

So, would expanding help the Vols? The argument could be made both ways. Obviously, more teams mean a better chance Tennessee gets a shot at a title. However, more teams also opens the door for more non-power five conference teams like UCF.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many teams are apart of the playoff. Tennessee will always have a tough road due to the level of competition in the SEC. However, playing in the strongest conference does have its perks. All the Vols have to do is win, and they are in.