Brian Kelly provides honest thoughts on the looming 12-team College Football Playoff

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•09/09/22•

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The looming change to a 12-team playoff has several people in college football still determining their thoughts on it. It’s a big change to a format that had been successful over the last several years. However, it had started to create a very exclusive club that few teams could consistently reach each season. That’s why LSU’s Brian Kelly is all for the newly approved expansion.

Kelly spoke on the news of the CFP’s eventual expansion during media on Friday. He says it’s a decision that benefits the sport because it will include more teams for longer during the season.

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“I’m excited about it. I think a 12-team playoff is going to keep everybody (involved),” said Kelly.

Including more spots obviously means more teams get to play in the postseason. The important factor, though, is that more teams will get to be involved in the hunt. Brian Kelly explained it using the College Football Playoff rankings they announced towards the end of the season. Even though they release it as a de facto Top-25, teams that were outside the Top-10 didn’t realistically have a chance. By changing it to 12, at least 15 to 20 teams are affected down the stretch of the season.

“I just think about those November rankings that come out and, when it was four, you’re looking down and you go, ‘Does the 12th placed team really have a chance?’ If he’s 12, you really need to be higher ranked,” said Kelly. “But now with 12 (spots), probably as deep as 20 teams now are involved. I just think that’s good for college football.”

This won’t affect the perennial contenders who make the playoff year in and year out. This change will affect how the teams who are normally on the outside looking in will handle their season. If the media ranked Brian Kelly’s LSU Tigers 25th, per se, they’d be well outside the CFP picture. By changing it to 12, you give hope to a team in that position. It could have big ramifications in other ways but it should be great for the sport to have more teams participating for more of the season.