With the college football season (finally) behind us, it’s time to report the state of the College Football Playoff. Spoiler alert: It’s not good news for the CFP.
Let’s put it this way: If the current attendance trend continues, by the time the CFP contract expires in 2025 the only people watching in the stadium will be parents and cheerleaders. Who’s going to bring the orange slices for halftime?
Well, it’s not that bad, but it’s bad. For the fourth consecutive year, attendance dropped for the seven CFP games. This includes the so-called New Year’s Six bowls (among them, the two semifinals) — Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, Cotton and Sugar — plus the national championship days later.
Attendance at these bowls fell to a new low — down by a total of 42,000 fans, or an average of more than 6,000 per game.
The numbers would’ve been worse if not for the national championship, which drew a sellout crowd of 76,885.
The Cotton Bowl (Memphis-Penn State) attracted 54,828 fans, down 17,000 from the previous year and the smallest in 31 years.
The Sugar Bowl (Georgia-Baylor) drew 55,200 fans, down by 16,238 from the previous year and the eighth lowest in the bowl’s history.
The Orange Bowl (Virginia-Florida) was down by about 1,000 fans, and the Rose Bowl (Oregon-Wisconsin) was down about 1,500 fans.
The Fiesta Bowl (the Clemson-Ohio State semifinal) actually increased by about 1,500 fans from the previous year.
The Peach Bowl (the other semifinal, LSU-Oklahoma) was up by 4,300.
You probably noticed that the three games that were actually part of the playoff — in other words, the games that mattered — saw a rise in attendance; the rest of the bowls declined and you can probably guess the reason. They have been rendered meaningless by the playoff system. Which was predictable.
For the record, attendance at the other 33 bowls fell even more dramatically, which can hardly be surprising when there are far too many bowls — 80 of the 130 FBS schools “qualify” for a bowl game — most of them filled by mediocre teams. According to a report by The Associated Press, 23 of the bowls were played in stadiums in which attendance was less than 75% of capacity; eight of those games were less than 50%. Six bowl games saw their smallest crowds ever.
Anyway, who cares (clearly, fans don’t). Back to the seven CFP bowls. There’s a simple solution to their attendance problem. Expand the playoff field to either six or eight teams to increase the number of meaningful games while also ensuring that more teams get a fair shot at the title, especially those from the peasant class (non-Power Five conferences).
This will involve change, as well as common sense, both of which are anathema to CFP officials. After all, it took them decades just to adopt a playoff system, which was the equivalent of a car company deciding to put wheels on their cars.
For a six-team playoff, the top two ranked teams would be awarded a first-round bye, a la the NFL. The “wild card” round would be played a week or two before New Year’s, the semifinals would be played on or near New Year’s Day, the final a week or so later. Voila, three playoff games turn into five playoff games, and it doesn’t push the season any deeper into January.
To increase the number of meaningful games in a significant way, an eight-team playoff is preferable. The same, aforementioned schedule could be utilized. Now three playoff games becomes seven.
The biggest change that CFP officials will have to wrap their brains around is starting the playoffs a week before New Year’s. It’s a big mystery why college football continues to have a two- to three-week dead period from the end of the regular season to the start of bowl games (and then they complain that expanded playoffs will prolong the season and prevent the “student-athletes” from attending class). Fill this dead period with meaningful bowls.
The expanded playoff field would be profitable, fun, practical and more fair. You can see why the CFP people won’t warm up to the idea for years