Northwestern HC David Braun Takes Stance on CFP Expansion

It's official: the College Football Playoff will make the seismic shift to a 24-team playoff next season, doubling in size from the 12-team format that existed from 2024 to 2026.

The five-year, $1.7 billion deal with ESPN will also eliminate Power 4 conference championship games, move the date of the Army-Navy game, and shift the playoff schedule up, among other changes.

The obvious driving force behind the revamped system is more money for the networks and conferences. However, expansion has also received support from programs who view this as an opportunity to level the playing field and continue to encourage the newfound parity of college football in the NIL era.

One example of this is Northwestern head coach David Braun, who weighed in on the big news at the podium on Monday.

"It allows for things to be settled on the field," Braun explained.

The Wildcats, who dropped a second straight conference game to No. 16 Iowa on Saturday to fall to 6-3 on the season, had put together a decent resume before traveling to Oregon on Halloween, sporting a sole one-score loss to No. 6 Indiana from early in the season. But after the close loss in Eugene, Braun's squad couldn't find their footing without quarterback Aidan Chiles (upper body) and was dispatched easily by a score of 24-10 at Ryan Field.

These are the games that Northwestern has to have to be considered under the current playoff format. That said, the Big Ten only features one team without a loss in UCLA, and the margins up and down the standings have been razor thin. The same can be said of the Big Ten's tandem power conference the SEC, which has had one of its most competitive years in recent memory from top to bottom.

Braun hit on this reality, pointing to the parity in the sport as a reason why an expanded playoff is a good thing.

"There's all sorts of parity across college football right now and the expanded playoff allows for a lot of these conversations to be handled where they should be handled," he said. "And that's not in the court of public opinion or the media, it's on the football field."

The other not so hidden message in Braun's statement is a shot toward the CFP selection committee, who seems to be consistently under fire from both fans and coaches alike. In making these decisions, the committee is entrusted with using their own judgement to determine the strength of one resume over another, which opens the door to several implicit biases. As Braun suggests, it is better to avoid this and let teams figure it out on the field.

Despite the tough loss Saturday, Braun seems to have the program moving in the right direction, and for the sake of the immediate future, the 24-team playoff should be a great opportunity to get his Wildcats in. As for this year, they will look to capitalize on Ohio State's recent struggles to get back on track in a clash of teams on a two-loss streak.