Last year’s college football playoff appeared to work just fine with four teams, but Auburn Tigers coach Gus Malzahn wants the field expanded to eight teams. His reasoning? It would “guarantee” that the SEC has two teams representing it in the playoff.
Malzahn made his comments to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, who subsequently posted about them on Twitter.
Gus Malzahn adamant that @CFBPlayoff expands. "Our league needs eight teams. That'll all but guarantee we'll get two teams [in]."
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) July 21, 2015
It’s hard to disagree with Malzahn, as the SEC is easily the toughest, deepest and most competitive conference in all of college football. Of its fourteen teams, only two (Vanderbilt and Kentucky) finished with overall records with winning percentages below .500.
That being said, if playoff expansion did indeed happen, having two SEC teams represented would be a near-certainty. But at this point, it looks like the playoff will stay as it is, with only four teams qualifying and the selection committee doing its best to put the four top squads in the bracket.
Maybe someday, however, Malzahn will get his wish as the playoff expands further.
Auburn opens the 2015 season against Louisville on September 5, in a game set to be played at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports