JaMarcus Shephard isn’t hiding where he stands on the 24-team College Football Playoff. The Oregon State head coach, and former Alabama assistant, wants the new format to open doors - not shut them - for programs outside the biggest leagues.
Speaking during his press conference, Shephard pointed directly to the challenge teams face when they’re not sitting in the sport’s upper tier. “if you’re in some of these conferences around the country, specifically outside of the top five, the Pac-12 being one of those top five, if you’re outside of those top five, you know it’s sometimes a little more difficult to get into the dance, you know, even with winning your conference.”
His concern is tied to the possibility of automatic bids going to the major conferences, a setup he believes could squeeze out smaller leagues. He made his position clear with a blunt message: “Let’s try to make it more accessible to more people, rather than just trying to make the rich richer.”
Shephard doubled down on that point when he said, “I hope the NCAA actually does care about student athletes, all student athletes, not just the ones in the SEC and the Big Ten.”
He also framed the expanded playoff as a chance for more teams across the FBS to get in the mix, pointing to the NCAA Basketball Tournament as an example of a system that includes every conference champion.
Shephard spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons at Alabama as co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach under Kalen DeBoer. Before that, he worked with DeBoer at Washington in 2022-23.
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Alabama Heads Into LSU Week With One Encouraging Trend Under DeBoer
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The encouraging part for Alabama is what has happened coming out of bye weeks under DeBoer. The Tide have won all four of those games and done so by comfortable margins, a useful trend to lean on as they head into a matchup that should carry real College Football Playoff weight. LSU, coached by Lane Kiffin, will bring plenty of attention and pressure with it, and Alabama's ability to reset this week could matter as much as anything else in what comes next. [Read more 🡒]