We all thought we were going to get expansion. We all hoped for expansion. But all of that hope and wishful thinking was dashed in a matter of seconds on Friday morning. College football fans across the country were alerted that the board of managers for the College Football Playoff had voted “no” on expansion and voted to leave the current playoff format, which stands at 4 teams, in effect through the 2026 season. This vote came as an effect of college athletic leaders and conference presidents failing to come to a resolution and an agreement on an expansion plan that made everyone happy. So we are now stuck with a format that the majority of fans believe is flawed and is sharply loosing approval rating points.

I’m not here to get into the blame game and trying to decipher who’s fault it is for no expansion. I know it isn’t just a one person hold out situation. I know there were many different people who were upset with ideas that were being thrown around and didn’t think that their conference would benefit from expansion. I’m here to voice my disappointment with these voters as a fan of college football. Because I am very disappointed. Everyone who was in that voting room knew that expansion was necessary to the current system. The college football bowl season is a dying breed and it is dying a very quick death. Playoff expansion could’ve revived bowl season and brought new excitement to the game. Expanding the playoff gives more teams a chance to win a national championship and also brings a slight March Madness vibe to college football. Plus, expansion could bring first round playoff games to college campuses and who doesn’t want that? But instead we have to suffer through the same system for another 5 seasons. The thing that I fear with that is ESPN will become involved in the expansion negotiations and could ultimately back these conferences into a corner with their own expansion idea and then nobody will get what they want.

I do love the playoff system and I prefer a playoff much more than the old computer generated BCS system. However you can love something and still want it to change for the better. Expanding would’ve been a change for the better. But that question will have to remain unanswered until 2027.