Lane Kiffin: Expanded CFP field “would go a long ways” in determining nation’s best team
Now-third-year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has long been a proponent of an expanded playoff.
Safe to say, then, he’s on board with Friday’s vote by the College Football Playoff board of managers, which unanimously approved an expanded field from four teams to 12 starting in 2026.
Actually, the new format could be implemented by 2024. However, there’s plenty of haggling to go yet on an eventual rollout. The 10 FBS commissioners (among them the SEC’s Greg Sankey) and Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick are meeting this week in Irving, Texas, to discuss.
Kiffin can be forgiven for currently not having much to add on the upcoming monumental shakeup of the sport. He’s currently got his hands full following Ole Miss’ messy season-opening win over Troy.
“I was told by (Ole Miss athletics director) Keith Carter,” Kiffin said Monday, in his weekly press conference with local media. “Last thing on my mind or thing I worry about is however many years from now that is.
“But my statement’s always been that’s better because more people have an opportunity instead of people sitting in a room deciding these four. They can’t be right. Nothing against them. Otherwise, in basketball, the number-one seeds would all be the Final Four. It would go a long ways in determining the best team better.”
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The SEC has had the most appearances (10), wins (14) and championships (5) during the CFP era.
That number is only likely to grow once expansion goes into effect. Ole Miss, for example, would have been an eight or nine-seed paired in the same side of the bracket as top-seed Alabama last season.
The Rebels finished 10-3 overall, including their 10th all-time appearance in the Sugar Bowl.
“If history’s a lesson to help us understand the future, it won’t be easy,” to get to the 12-team field by 2024, Sankey told ESPN. The playoff would be made up of the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams.
“But minds change, motivations change. There’s a bunch of moving parts. That’s where I wish we could have used the last nine months to work. We’ll have to accelerate our consideration to make it happen.”
