AJ Hawk, Charles Woodson endorse College Football Playoff format over BCS to decide champion

As the college football world officially enters its first foray into the 12-team College Football Playoff format to determine the 2024 national champion, Charles Woodson and AJ Hawk are all-in.

“Yeah I (am), just because any time, no matter how many teams you put in, I feel like there’s always going to be teams left out, that feel like they should be there,” Hawk said on Wednesday’s The Triple Option podcast. “But if we put in 12, and it’s a win-or-go-home situation, you can prove you’re the best team.

“I think that’s always better than when a group of people votes on who the best team might be. Like any time you can play for it, I am absolutely all in favor.”

Of course, allowing a multitude of teams to win it on the field wasn’t always the case. And Woodson, for one, remembers the consternation the previous systems created.

Before the BCS: When the polls made the call

Twenty-seven years ago, one season before the computer-based BCS system was set to take effect, Woodson’s Michigan Wolverines were 12-0 and the nation’s No. 1-ranked team as it entered the Rose Bowl against Pac-10 champ Washington State. That same year, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were also undefeated and ranked No. 2 prior to facing Peyton Manning and the third-ranked Tennessee Volunteers in the Orange Bowl.

Both Michigan and Nebraska went on to win their respective bowl games in convincing fashion, leaving the debate over which 13-0 team would be the NCAA national champion up to the national polls. Unsurprisingly, both the AP and Coaches polls split their vote, with the AP selecting the Wolverines and the Coaches’ picking the Cornhuskers.

For Woodson, who won the 1997 Heisman Trophy as a cornerback over Manning, the split national titles did little to resolve the issue. It’s that memory that makes the current College Football Playoff model so appealing, especially as it expands to 12 teams.

“I’d say, yeah, just because it makes it more inclusive,” Woodson said on Wednesday’s The Triple Option podcast. “Before, you go back through the timeline, … we didn’t have an opportunity to play Nebraska, which was also undefeated. And I think a year later the BCS was implemented, and then it started with the best (two) teams or the best four teams.”

Woodson on CFP: ‘Now we really get to find out’

The BCS, not without its own controversies, eventually gave way to the four-team College Football Playoff invitational format in 2014. A decade later, the Playoff has been expanded to 12 teams, and could expand even further after the current contract expires following the 2025 season.

In the meantime, Woodson is in favor of the CFP format that allows teams to ultimately make their championship case on the field of play.

“Outside of those four teams, you always had a fifth, a sixth team that’s saying, ‘Hey, we’re good enough to win (it).’ … Now (the expanded CFP) allows some of those teams who normally would be outside that window to have their opportunity,” Woodson continued. “So we get to see a team, maybe it’s Boise State, that gets into the Playoffs. And in years past maybe they had an undefeated season and said, ‘We’re one of the best teams.’ Alright, … now we’ll really get to find out. We’ll get to find out if those teams outside of that (Top 4) bubble how real their programs are when it comes down to it.”