David Pollack 'can't imagine' the College Football Playoff being less than 16 teams

College football analyst David Pollack can’t really envision the College Football Playoff being less than 16 teams at this point. Currently, it’s at 12 but expansion is on the horizon.

With 16 teams in the College Football Playoff, there would be no byes, like there are with 12 teams. The top four currently get a first-round bye.

If anything, the College Football Playoff is not going to shrink from its current format. Pollack is now on board with “more is better.” In reality, where it goes to 14 or 16 remains to be seen.

“I can’t imagine why at this point, just most people aren’t going to go ahead and say 16,” Pollack said on See Ball Get Ball. “I mean, I think that would be the overwhelming favor, because it’s more access, and more access means more teams. And so I think it’s good for your team to have more access to something. So I think that would be the consensus. Now, a couple years ago, to go to four from to 12, not everybody was on board. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t love it. I love college football, and I’ll embrace whatever comes. But I think change is hard, just like with NIL and just like with all this stuff. Whenever you change something that I love, that I follow, that is so awesome, it takes me a second to get used to it now. 

College Football Playoff better off with 16 teams?

“Now, some people handle change better than others. I don’t love change. So the system was so fun, and so I thought it was so great, because I covered it for so many years, I didn’t want to change it. But now I like more, and I would be  in favor for 16. Because last year, I think you had a gripe that there were a few more teams that were really good. Now I don’t know that every year is going to be like that. Not every year is going to have, you know, 14 competitive teams. Sometimes we might have seven, and we’re like, we could cut this off at seven, but I’d rather have the extra.”

As far as Pollack is concerned, 16 teams give more opportunities to teams. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is a fan of the 5+11 College Football Playoff model, which could appease Pollack.

“To your point, maybe there’s some changes, modifications to make it even better,” Yormark said. “Obviously, it’s been very public about what the future format might look like. I do like a 16-team format. I think more access is good and it’s not dilutive. But I’ve been very adamant about 5+11 and I think that is the fair approach to take. And I know fans want it. They want it. They want fairness. They want teams to win it on the field and they don’t want anything predetermined. So I’m all in on the 5+11 and I’ll keep doubling down on it.”