Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White badly wants a change to the College Football Playoff that not everyone wants
Will Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White get his wish?
Tennessee Vols athletic director Danny White doesn’t think the current 12-team College Football Playoff is big enough.
White, who was hired as Tennessee’s athletic director in early 2021, wants to see more teams included in the playoff. The former Notre Dame shooting guard pointed out this week on WNML that a small percentage of FBS teams are included in the playoff, compared to the NFL’s postseason, for example.
“I’ve always been an advocate for an expanded playoff,” said White. “I think our postseason in football is not a finished product. We had 14 out of 16 men’s basketball teams in our conference make the NCAA tournament last year. I’m not smart enough to do that math on the fly, but it’s a pretty high percentage.
“So when you think about 16 football programs in the SEC, our most heavily invested sport by far — our biggest revenue producer that subsidizes so many of our other sports — from a student experience perspective and the fan perspective, I think there needs to be a significantly greater percentage of teams that have access to postseason. The NFL has 14 out of 32 (teams) go to the playoffs. There’s a lot of conversation about going from four to 12 and how we watered down the regular season. I never felt like that was the case. We had our highest ratings, particularly in the back third of the regular season, that we’ve ever had. There’s more compelling games. There’s more teams in the hunt — more teams and fan bases with hope that they can get into the playoff. I think going with more than 12 is really important. We have 128 FBS football programs and 12 make the postseason. That’s way too small of a percentage. I’d like to see the field grow. I was hoping we’d get at least to 16 (teams in the playoff). But I think, in time — hopefully in the not too distant future — I think it needs to get bigger than that.”
The College Football Playoff’s management committee announced in January that the field is remaining at 12 for the 2026 season.
“After ongoing discussion about the 12-team playoff format, the decision was made to continue with the current structure,” said CFP executive director Rich Clark in a statement last month. “This will give the Management Committee additional time to review the 12-team format, so they can better assess the need for potential change. While they all agree the current format has brought more excitement to college football and has given more schools a real shot in the postseason, another year of evaluation will be helpful.”
Not everyone is on the same page as Danny White
Not everyone wants to see the College Football Playoff expand beyond 12 teams.
Popular college football talk show host Josh Pate came out strongly against an expanded playoff this week, suggesting that it devalues the regular season.
I’ve gotta side with Danny White on this one. I get what Pate is saying, I just think that angle is a bit overblown. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m going to watch compelling, competitive college football games during the season regardless of their postseason implications. I know most of the talking heads are all about the narratives and storylines and playoff rankings etc. I get it. That stuff is important, too. But for me, it’s all about the competition on the field. If it’s a close and competitive game, I’ll watch it. I’ll watch Mississippi State and Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl even if neither team has a chance in hell of reaching the playoff. I’ll watch Florida and Missouri in November if neither team is getting blown out (regardless of post-season implications). I’ll watch if it’s a compelling game — I don’t need the postseason implications mapped out to enjoy a game.
And when it comes to the postseason, I would absolutely love to double the fun of last year’s tournament. If adding 12 teams to the playoff devalues the regular season, then I guess you didn’t value the regular season much to begin with.
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