Evaluating how the expanded College Football Playoff impacts Power 4 conference perceptions

The expanded College Football Playoff brings a whole new meaning to the postseason, and On3’s Andy Staples believes the CFP format will reveal some harsh truths about the power conferences.

With the Playoff only consisting of four teams per year prior to this coming season, it was hard to use it as the be-all end-all judge of which conference was best. Of course, bowl games were a tough measuring stick, too. But with a 12-team format, there will be more opportunities to test the best of each league against one another.

On Tuesday morning’s On3 YouTube live stream, JD PicKell wondered if fans are really ready to see what they’ve been asking for.

“Let’s say 10 years ago, people were saying: ‘We gotta expand the playoff, the SEC will get what’s coming to them and it’s going to make sure we get more parity.’ Those folks that were saying that 10 years ago, you’re going to watch a playoff with five, six SEC teams?” PicKell asked.

Andy Staples chimed in: “It’s all fun and games until the fourth place team in the SEC beats your conference champ in the playoff.

“It’s not necessarily a rude awakening. It will be if they do that, but I think it’s great we get to test that theory out. Because you had people saying ‘the SEC is a media construction and the teams aren’t really that good, except for the ones at the top.’ Now, we’ll find out,” Staples continued.

“If the fourth-best SEC team is in there and whoops up on the second-best Big Ten team, like, that tells you something. But if the second-best SEC team gets whooped by the third-best Big Ten team, all of a sudden, maybe we look at things differently.”

On3’s Pete Nakos added: “How deep is the Big Ten? We really don’t know at this point. This is going to be a huge barometer.”

“We’re going to see it in action,” Staples responded. “(The SEC) has been very deep. It feels very deep this year, although I would argue the ACC feels a little deeper at the top. The Big Ten, thanks to what it has added, is much deeper than it was. But yeah, we’re going to find out if that theory is true — is the SEC really that deep? And the playoff will tell us that.”

Staples and PicKell also think the expanded Playoff will raise the bar of expectations at certain schools that maybe didn’t believe they could make the four-team field, but have full faith they can get into a 12-team playoff.

“I’m fascinated by the dynamics of this, by how expectations change, because we just made a list of schools in the SEC who feel like they have to make the playoff this year,” Staples said. “So, I still don’t think it’s going to be just making the playoff. Like, if you’re James Franklin at Penn State, you’re now expected to make the playoff. But you got to win in the playoff, too.”

JD PicKell responded with a pretty apt comparison for the situation with the number of teams who believe they can and should make the playoff.

“I think it’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Like, hey Ole Miss, if you get in the Playoff, we’re going to want to win a game or two,” PicKell said. “If we get to the quarterfinals, gosh dang it, we’re going to have to win a natty, right? It’s that whole — if you give a mouse a cookie, they’re going to want to win a playoff game.”

For many of college football’s top programs, the expectations have now entirely shifted thanks to a greater opportunity for all teams to compete for the Playoff.