Many -- nay, most -- of you reading this wish the College Football Playoff would expand from four to eight teams. Tomorrow. Marching alongside you in that parade? Akron head coach Terry Bowden.
Bowden spoke with ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich on Wednesday and deposited a dose of reality on the state of Group of 5 teams in this CFP world we live in.
“I don’t think anybody in the Mid-American Conference believes that if you go undefeated they’re going to pick you to be in the final four,” Bowden said. “I don’t think they’re going to pick us. There’s always going to be one or two teams with one loss from the SEC or Big Ten that they’re going to pick over an undefeated team. With four teams? Not a chance.
“I don’t think we coaches believe there’s a realistic chance, and I don’t think our players believe the four-team playoff gives us a realistic chance of playing for a national championship,” he said. “I don’t think we have the same luxury. I don’t think we hoodwink our guys into thinking that, as it now stands, there’s some kind of way that an undefeated G-5 can get in.”
Even still, G-5 teams are in a better spot today than they were in the Bowl Championship Series era. Payouts are up, a guaranteed New Year’s Six spot awaits the highest-rated G-5 champion, and the increased field from two to four at least increases the Cinderella dream for undefeated mid-majors. Like Houston, for example.
“They’ll say, ‘Well, gosh, Oklahoma faced 12 Oklahomas. Y’all played one good game.’ I’m not bucking the system,” he said, “I’m saying go to eight and you probably have a chance for a team to get in at a mid-major level. Go to four and I think we’re pretending.”
Oh, well, nevermind then.
