Texas A&M coach Mike Elko believes college football must protect the value of the regular season as pressure builds for more College Football Playoff expansion.
The College Football Playoff may have only just entered its 12-team era, but the debate over expanding again is already picking up speed.
That’s exactly why Texas A&M coach Mike Elko is pumping the brakes.
His point is simple, and it’s one a lot of college football fans will agree with ... the sport loses something important if too many teams get a path into the postseason.
What has always made college football different is the weight each Saturday carries.
A bad loss in October can follow a team all the way into December. A huge win in November can completely change the national picture.
That pressure has long been part of the sport’s identity, and it’s a big reason the regular season feels so intense compared to almost anything else in American sports.
The current playoff format at least gives the sport a chance to keep some of that urgency.
Conference champions from the Power Four are guaranteed spots, the top-ranked Group of Six champion gets in, and Notre Dame can still claim an at-large berth if it finishes high enough in the rankings.
It’s not perfect, but it has at least created a structure that still rewards winning meaningful games.
That’s where Elko’s concern comes in. If the field keeps growing, the sport risks turning the regular season into little more than a sorting exercise.
College football has never been built like college basketball, where the bracket dominates everything. In football, the chase has always started well before the postseason.
If there’s one part of the playoff system that deserves more scrutiny, it may not be the number of teams at all. It may be the calendar.
The postseason stretches too far into transfer portal season, creating a messy overlap that puts roster movement and championship games on competing tracks.
College football can evolve. It always does. But if leaders push too far, they could weaken the very formula that made the sport matter so much in the first place.
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