Rece Davis pushes back against Eli Drinkwitz CFP ideas, concedes point

ESPN’s Rece Davis pushed back against Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri coach’s idea for a 30-team College Football Playoff. However, he conceded there are some solid concepts to his idea.

Drinkwitz wants a large expansion, but even still, it’s still a small percentage of all college football teams playing for its biggest prize. Davis likes the 12-team playoff as is, perhaps even some small expansion, but not 30 teams. 

However, Drinkwitz wants play-in games considering conference championships could soon be a moot point. Davis explained his own thinking on the College GameDay Podcast.

“I love Drinkwitz, huge fan, he’s great TV, and I couldn’t disagree with him more about this,” Davis said. “You know, a tiered 30-team, I mean I get what he’s saying, it’s too much. But he makes a great point about the championship game, because already, even at 12, you had a team that was in and they lost their quarterback, and even if Gunner Stockton proves to be first-team All-SEC this year in that moment in time, though, he certainly acquitted himself well that afternoon and leading them to victory. 

“But in that moment in time, he wasn’t seasoned, or he didn’t have the reps to put him in that situation. So obviously it diminished their chance. It did diminish their offense against a great Notre Dame team. Maybe Notre Dame beats Georgia with Carson Beck too, but it certainly changed things a lot for Georgia and Eli’s absolutely right about that.” 

Drinkwitz outlined his vision where the SEC and Big Ten get more bids than others, naturally. But it might level the playing field a bit, despite it being a larger playoff than the FCS.

“My math could be wrong here, but if we did the 12, okay, and you had four automatic qualifiers? Everybody thinks that’s limiting. It’s not limiting if you think about it from, you take those four automatic qualifiers and you divide that into eight opportunities, of eight play-in games,” Drinkwitz explained. “Now you’re thinking, the SEC is playing in for eight, the Big Ten is playing in for eight. Since we’ve expanded the bubble to 16, give three to the Big 12, three to the ACC, one, one.

“Now you’ve got 30 teams, 30 teams. Now you’re talking about an opportunity for 30 teams, 30 fan bases to be excited and engaged, engaged in giving revenue. You’ve got 30 teams with players who have access to compete for a championship. So, for me, I think that makes a lot more sense.”

So while Davis doesn’t totally agree with Drinkwitz, there may come a time when it’s inevitable. Heck, the 12-team playoff is only in its second year and there’s already discussion of expansion to a 14 or 16-team playoff.

“I mean, there may come a time when, as things evolve right now, it’s against the constitution and the DNA of college coaches to think that way, but if you go into a conference championship game under this current system at some point like, ‘Well, look, we’re in either way. You know, love to have that bye or whatever, but it’s more important not to get a guy hurt,’” Davis said. “It’ll be interesting to see if coaches start looking at it that way at some point. I hope not, because it diminishes competition. But, I understand the point he’s making for sure. I just thought it was interesting.”