College Football Playoff expansion would be a good thing for a school like West Virginia, right? Well, maybe. I'm probably in the minority, and heck, it may ev
Nov 8, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez walks with his team as they arrive before their game against the Colorado Buffaloes at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn ImagesWell, maybe. I'm probably in the minority, and heck, it may even be a one-man club in this line of thinking, but a 24-team field may not help a program like WVU, if and when then make it into the field. Think of it this way. The NCAA basketball tournament is designed for chaos.
Every once in a while, you will have a Cinderella who does the unthinkable by either upsetting a No. 1 or 2 seed, or is a double-digit seed that makes a deep run. Will we see that in an expanded football field? Maybe, but my guess is that it won't happen nearly as often as it does in basketball.
In hoops, you have some schools that don't have a football team, and their highest revenue-generating sport is men's basketball, so they allocate most of their dollars to the basketball team. The more games that need to be played to win a championship works against schools like West Virginia in its current non-salary cap setup, if we're being honest.
If you're toward the back end of the 24 teams, you're going to have to play some of the best teams along the way, many of which will have rosters worth way more money. If we're talking strictly about WVU's best chance to win a national title, I personally feel it would be in a 12-team field. As we saw this past season, you can make a run as a double-digit seed like No. 10 Miami did.
I think you can make the case that, most years, there are about ten or so teams that have the talent to win it all. Do multiple four-loss teams really have a chance to make a run or even have the talent to? Probably not.
Depending on where you are seeded, you may have the opportunity to host a home game, which means more revenue for the school, a nice boost to the local economy, and, of course, all of the exposure you get from being in. That is a big reason why WVU AD Wren Baker is in favor of expansion.
West Virginia University Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI “College Football Playoff is a little different because right now, that’s a relatively small field. I do think it needs to be enlarged, just for representation. There are teams being left out who could win games and perhaps advance to the championship. What the right number is, I don’t know that I’m sure.
I’d want to see how are we going to divvy up the additional revenue and how does that selection process work. I also think the opportunity to host those games on campuses… the environment for the women’s basketball regional was electric. Just a buzz from well before the game even started, and I was thinking, man, can you imagine what it would be like hosting a College Football Playoff game here in Morgantown?
You have to take the calendar into account, the wear and tear on players’ bodies. What’s going to happen to championship games? When do you start the season? When do you conclude?
Portal… there’s so many other things to be worked out, so that’s why I leave a little wiggle room to say I’d like to know more of the details as we get there, but definitely favor expansion. ” CFP expansion would certainly help WVU generate more revenue and exposure, but I'm not so sure it would help their odds of winning it all when they become a playoff-caliber team. Loading recommendations...
Please wait while we load personalized content recommendationsSchuyler Callihan is the publisher of West Virginia On SI and has been a trusted source covering the Mountaineers since 2016. He is the host of Between The Eers, The Walk Thru Game Day Show, and In the Gun Podcast. The Wheeling, WV native moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2020 to cover the Charlotte Hornets and Carolina Panthers.
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