Gators HC Jon Sumrall raises a fascinating question with the new version of the College Football Playoff
With the 24-team College Football Playoff now set in stone for the 2027 season, scheduling questions now become the biggest factor.
The College Football Playoff is now officially 24 teams, as they agreed to a five-year deal with ESPN worth $1.7 billion. That was something we knew was coming for weeks, but with it being official, it raises an interesting discussion point about how schedules will change.
We got to hear from Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall about it and he raised a fascinating point about the structure: it’s a lot more like the NFL.
I knew it was coming. With a nine-game SEC schedule, I’m for it,” said Sumrall. “If we were still at eight SEC games, I think I might be against because are we making the field too big? But you’re going to look at, and this is something I’ve talked with several people about, Urban Meyer being one of them. I get asked about Urban a lot. Like nine and three in the SEC is almost like in a weird way what like 11 and one used to be. This is NFL-ish now.”
Jon Sumrall likens College Football Playoff to the NFL
The advent of NIL and now revenue sharing were bound to impact the sport of college football as we know it. The real question remains how much we actually see it change the sport when it comes to scheduling.
When you look at the Gators, they have the unique experience of having their general manager having held the same job in the NFL. Sumrall raised the question to Caldwell about how scheduling could turn into what the NFL does ahead of the playoffs: players end up resting.
“I did have a conversation a while back with Dave Caldwell, ‘would you ever see a team that’s 10 and one in college football going into a Week 12, game 12 rest players?’ I don’t know if that’ll happen or not in a year or two from now, but Dave’s got that NFL background, and so we sat down a couple weeks ago, and he’s like, ‘Do you think this ever happened in college?’ I’m like, ‘Well, when you’re playing a rivalry game at the end, no, I don’t think so.’ But if you if somebody ever made it to where their schedule, like say game 12, they made their FCS game. Some people might start doing some of that kind of stuff, as it goes to 24. I’m not saying we’re there yet, but we got Florida State always in [the final week] right now. But I do think it’ll be interesting to see if people change their scheduling model.”
I have been widely in favor of a 24-team playoff, especially with every other level being decided in that style. The FBS shouldn’t be any different. It does stink that bowl games are going to suffer for it, but I genuinely believe it’s the right thing.
Even so, there are unintended consequences for every action. This could crater the beauty that is rivalry weekend over Thanksgiving, and that would be a travesty. It also could make the final week of the season feel a lot lesser like the NFL’s often does. There are usually only a few of the 16 games that feel like anything, because they don’t have any meaning unless you consider NFL Draft position.
Isaac Newton’s third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and well, this is what happens when you make sweeping changes.
