The College Football Playoff is headed for another massive expansion, and for Ohio State fans who already thought the 12-team format took enough bite out of the regular season, this is a whole new level of frustration.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel is reporting that the CFP will expand to 24 teams, a move that, in the eyes of the source piece, strips even more urgency from the weekly grind that used to define the sport. The argument is simple: if more teams can stumble through November and still reach the bracket, then the pressure that once surrounded elite matchups keeps fading away.
That concern starts with Ohio State’s own schedule. In the four-team playoff era, a loss like the one to Texas would have left the Buckeyes walking a tightrope the rest of the season.
Under the bigger formats, though, the margin for error keeps growing. The source piece argues Ohio State could drop two games - even three or four on a regular basis - and still have a path to the postseason.
That shift changes how marquee games are viewed. Matchups that once carried real weight in September and October now feel less decisive, and the source piece points directly to this weekend’s top-five meeting between the Buckeyes and the Hoosiers as an example of a game whose importance is being dulled by expansion. The complaint is blunt: why tune in early when so much of the regular season no longer carries the same consequence?
The criticism also turns squarely toward the people making the calls. According to the source article, presidents and administrators are driving the change out of greed, with the claim that the extra revenue is being justified by the need to pay players in the NIL era. It also says they are not actually paying players as much as they can, instead pushing fans to donate to NIL collectives if they want their teams to land top talent.
There’s also a broader warning about what happens next. The source piece points to down ratings across college football this season and predicts even steeper drops if the sport moves into a watered-down 24-team CFP. The concern is that fans will have even less reason to care about regular-season Saturdays if the results don’t meaningfully shape the race for a title.
For Ohio State specifically, the source article says only one stretch still really matters: The Game and the Playoff. It argues that contests against teams like Oregon or Penn State lose some of their edge when the bracket is this wide open. And while the expanded playoff may make life easier for Ryan Day and the rest of the coaching staff, the source piece makes clear that the tradeoff is a sport that keeps losing the urgency that once made it special.
The final note is the bleakest one of all: those running college football, the article argues, will keep pushing expansion until viewership drops, attendance dips, and the money dries up. By then, the damage to the game will already be done.
In Other News...
Ohio State Gets Pulled Into A High-Stakes Fight Over Eligibility
The eligibility fight surrounding fifth-year athletes in Ohio has now spilled into federal court, with the NCAA suing Gov. Mike DeWine over the executive order that lets state universities challenge the associations ruling. For Ohio State and the rest of the states Division I programs, the issue is more than paperwork. It goes straight to how coaches build rosters, manage scholarship spots and weigh whether a veteran player can give them one more season.
The NCAA argues the order violates the Commerce Clause and the First Amendment by giving Ohio schools an unfair edge and allowing them to sidestep NCAA rules. Ohios Division I programs reportedly support the directive, and coaches have said they will make decisions based on what helps the team most. For a Buckeyes program always balancing immediate ambitions against long-term roster planning, the legal standoff adds another layer of uncertainty to an already delicate eligibility question. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Faces Two Pressing Questions In Huge Indiana Test
Jeremiah Smith has become one of the most important pieces in Ohio States offense, and his involvement figures to be a major storyline in Bloomington. The Buckeyes have been looking for ways to keep their passing game balanced and dangerous, and getting Smith the ball is part of that equation as they head into a matchup that carries real weight after last seasons Big Ten title game loss to Indiana.
Julian Sayins protection will matter just as much, because Indiana can make life uncomfortable if Ohio State lets pressure reach the quarterback too often. On the other side of the ball, the Buckeyes also need to close quickly on Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover and create enough disruption to tilt the game their way, with this trip offering both a chance at revenge and a test of whether Ohio State can handle the kind of pressure that usually decides big conference games. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Has A Chance To Shake Up The Big Ten Race
The Big Ten race is tightening at exactly the moment Ohio State would prefer some breathing room, and Indiana suddenly has a chance to make the leagues path a lot more complicated. The weekend slate comes with plenty of moving parts, from quarterback uncertainty elsewhere in the national picture to Ohio States own offensive line questions, but the Hoosiers are now positioned as one of the teams that could force the conversation to shift in a hurry.
For Buckeyes fans, that makes this a scoreboard-watching weekend as much as anything else. Alongside the predictions for the games themselves, the broadcasts are also expected to stir up talk about a possible 24-team College Football Playoff expansion, adding another layer to a week already loaded with speculation. If Indiana does its part, Ohio State may find the margin for error in the conference race getting thinner than it already is. [Read more 🡒]