Former College Football Playoff executive calls for expansion

For months, the College Football Playoff committee and conference commissioners have deliberated whether the Playoff should expand, and if it did, what the expansion would look like, but higher-ups still seem far from a conclusion on the matter.

As a result, the College Football Playoff will forge on with just four teams in its bracket, a scenario that leaves teams like Cincinnati — which is a perfect 8-0, beat Notre Dame on the road and is No. 2 in the AP poll — on the outside looking in, as the Bearcats received a No. 6 ranking in the first edition of the 2021 College Football Playoff rankings. But that controversy should end now, according to to USF athletic director Michael Kelly.

Before landing at USF, Kelly served a seven-year tenure as the chief operating officer for the College Football Playoff, where he played an instrumental role in the once-groundbreaking model for deciding a national champion, which replaced the BCS Championship model. Kelly, one of the men responsible for launching the first edition of the playoff, believes it’s time to 12 teams; he tweeted after the release that it’s “time to put 12 laces in side the football bracket.”

Time to put 12 laces inside the football bracket … pic.twitter.com/xX1a8wvFsU

— Michael Kelly (@MKellyUSF) November 3, 2021

Fickell quips after Cincinnati left out of initial College Football Playoff picture

Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell took a shot at Gary Barta, chairman of the College Football Playoff committee, after Cincinnati received a No. 6 ranking in the first edition of the 2021 College Football Playoff top 25 — a decision that Barta supported after the public release.

“I would say the committee has great respect for Cincinnati,” Barta said of Fickell’s Bearcats, which, by comparison, rank No. 2 in the AP poll. “The win at Notre Dame is a really impressive win. When you look at their schedule after that – or who they played after that – who else did they beat? … Very impressive win against Notre Dame, a lot of respect, but looking at the whole picture we feel No. 6 was the right place for Cincinnati.”

Barta continued to note the fact that Cincinnati in the following weeks beat a 2-6 Navy team and a 1-7 Tulane team, neither of which the committee thought highly of, perhaps explaining the decision to rank Cincinnati before one-loss teams like Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State.

Unsurprisingly, Fickell did not take well to the Bearcats ranking, despite it being the highest a Group of Five school has received in the College Football Playoff era. Shortly after the rankings were released on ESPN, Fickell took to his radio show, where co-hosts informed him of Barta’s comments, and he responded in jest.

“Who’s the chairman?” Fickell said. “Did he play football?”

The only problem, for Fickell, is that Barta did play football — for quite some time, in fact. Barta even played at the collegiate level, where he quarterbacked North Dakota State for three seasons. Serving primarily as an option quarterback, Barta led the Bison program to a Division-II National Championship title in 1983, 1985 and 1986, according to his bio.

“We don’t talk about a ceiling at all, again, we look at what’s happened so far,” Barta continued of Cincinnati. “We don’t project ahead. I think most everybody knows that. We look at what’s happened so far. Cincinnati earned their way to the No. 6 spot with that big win – being undefeated – and with that big win at Notre Dame. We haven’t talked at all about a ceiling so I really am not ready to say there’s a ceiling.”

Barta did not provide insight as to whether Fickell can lead Cincinnati into the top four of future rankings. With four games remaining, Cincinnati plays three lowly Group of Five opponents in Tulsa, South Florida and East Carolina; however, the penultimate game of the season — a home contest against fellow undefeated AAC foe, No. 23 SMU — could very well play a role in boosting the Bearcats. However, given the fact that they came in at No. 6, an undefeated AAC title might not be enough.

Fickell and Cincinnati could very well be on the outside looking in, unless one of the College Football Playoff’s top five — Georgia, Alabama, Michigan State, Oregon and Ohio State — fall off with a loss.