Whittingham: College Football Playoff Should Be Expanded Now More Than Ever

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham believes the College Football Playoff should be expanded.

Whittingham met with the meeting during the Pac-12 virtual “Media Day” on Wednesday and was asked whether the Playoff should be expanded and the Utah head coach believes now is the time to do so.

“Absolutely more than ever do I feel that the playoffs should be expanded and I think it’s going to happen I don’t think it’s a matter of if it’s when,” Whittingham stated. “So I believe that’s on the horizon. As far as the PAC 12 this year, I think if we are able to get all seven games in and absolutely, we should be considered and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But, in my estimation, with the seven games season, you have a big enough, large enough body of work, that you can get a fair evaluation and determine whether or not you deserve to be in the playoff picture.”

"We lost a lot of good players. I would say that's probably to be expected and about what we anticipated… All that really matters is what you do on the field." – @UtahCoachWhitt on being picked to finish 3rd in the Pac-12 South preseason poll.#GoUtes https://t.co/g1fcgjzHvE

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) October 7, 2020

Washington Head Coach Unveils CFP Expansion Idea

During the virtual “Media Day,” Washington head coach revealed his idea that had a lot of thought behind it as to what the Playoff should look like.

“I believe that it should be a 6 (team) playoff, this would a great year to start it. I think all power-five champions should be in the CFP. I don’t believe if you don’t win your division or you don’t win your conference, you would deserve to be in the CFP and we’ve had those teams go into the CFP in the last six years. I think we’d still rank them exactly where we rank them. The committee does a fabulous job. The one seed and two seed get a bye. And then the three faces six, the four plays the five and the winners move on and they play the one and the two and then we got your final four and away you go,” Lake said.

Jimmy Lake has a great plan to expand the playoff. Put a lot of thought behind this.@kslsports #Pac12FB

— Trevor Allen (@TrevorASports) October 7, 2020

“It’s very, very simple. That six spot I think should be reserved for an independent, a possibly undefeated highly ranked group of five, or maybe it is a highly ranked second place team in a conference that has performed very well during that year. I think that way you will guarantee they’re just no that you take all the subjectivity out of it all the politics, the East Coast, all that. Let the champions move on. Let the teams play and we’ll see who the best team is the end of the year,” Lake added.

Pac-12 Has Only Two Appearances In CFP

Since the College Football Playoff started in 2014, the Pac-12 has had a representative just twice. First one was Oregon in 2014. They lost to Ohio State in the National Championship game as the No. 2 seed.

The most recent trip to the CFP was Washington in 2016 as the No. 4 team in the country. The Huskies lost to Alabama in the semifinal.

During the Playoff era, seven SEC teams have made appearances. Alabama five times along with one trip for Georgia and LSU. The ACC had six trips, Florida State once and five from Clemson. The Big Ten had four including three from Ohio State and one from Michigan State. The Big 12 had three appearances, all from Oklahoma. Finally, Notre Dame is the only independent to receive a CFP berth.

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.