A 24-team College Football Playoff will generate more revenue, and that's why I love it

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There's nothing in the world I love more than generating revenue. In fact, the difference between me having a good day or not is determined by how much revenue I generate. It's my sole focus for each of the 24 hours in the day, Monday through Friday. I honestly used to hate weekends until I started this website/newsletter. What changed? The dreaded free time I used to have on Saturdays/Sundays can now be spent working on 2StripesCPD, chasing the high of generating even more revenue! You actually thought I do this because I love college football? I'll admit, it does make me feel a bit dirty that the revenue I generate from the site goes directly to me and not a billion-dollar corporation, but we all have to do things we don't like sometimes in our lives, right? Anyway, my wholehearted adoration of revenue generation is why I can't even begin to understand the pushback from college football fans about the American Football Coaches Association reportedly being in favor of expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams.

More playoff games means more money. It's as simple as that, and the only thing that should matter when discussing the playoff. More money for underpaid SEC/Big Ten head coaches - who will now comfortably hit the playoff bonus clauses in their contracts and finally be able to afford to feed their families. More money for the big-time football programs they lead, who are struggling to stay afloat in their run-down facilities. More money for cash-strapped TV networks like ESPN, while (hopefully) also introducing FOX into the playoff broadcasting mix. For too long, FOX's contributions to college football have been undervalued. Can you imagine just how breathtaking a 'Big Noon Kickoff' pre-game show before a playoff game would look in the stunning 720p standard definition resolution FOX uses for their college football broadcasts? ESPN's evil monopoly on postseason coverage for the past 15+ years is almost at its end! One can only hope that we're about to return to the gold standard of sports broadcasting that was the 'BCS on FOX' era:

My pal (and Fox Sports employee) RGIII said it best: if we aren't increasing revenue for conferences and teams, while also not allowing the Big Four TV networks to get a massive slice of the pie, too, what are we even doing here?

Expanding to 24 would also eliminate conference championship games. We have no use for those now anyway, thanks to the wise move of blowing up two conferences with such inconsequential history to the sport like the original Pac-12 and Big 12.

The only downside to all this? It also means more potential money for the players, too. The players are the least deserving of anyone in this equation when it comes to seeing the fruits of all this extra revenue we're about to generate. Much like my ethical conundrum of money from the subscriptions on this site going to me and not a corporation, I suppose players receiving a miniscule cut of the profits from playoff expansion is a necessary evil we have to accept if it means more money for everyone else.

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Of course, like anything in life, there are the nasty doubters and detractors of playoff expansion. In a recent survey at The Athletic, just nine percent of nearly 3,600 Big Ten fans said they were in favor of a 24-team playoff. Sounds like a group of people who don't know what's good for them, if you ask me! Don't they realize how much money stands to be earned by people who aren't them? The shareholder value these games will drive to TV networks thanks to the ratings they receive? I understand that these fans are desperately clinging on to traditions, rivalries, and what they believe is a meaningful regular season - but since when has college football ever been about any of that?

The ideal college football playoff isn't about rewarding the best teams in the regular season, its conference champions, or even wins and losses at all. It's about watching a three-loss Big Ten team play a four-loss SEC team at a branded neutral-site game in December. Then, we wait for ESPN/FOX Sports/NBC Sports public relations Twitter accounts to tell us what the TV ratings were so we can determine if the game was good or not. Finding out which contract bonuses coaches involved in these games will hit depending on how far their team goes will only add to the excitement. Ultimately, you and I needn't give a shit about who wins the national championship on the field. The real national champion is whoever generated the most revenue:

Big Ten Announces Record Revenue Distribution To Members

Big Ten Announces Record Revenue Distribution To Members

Big Ten ConferenceBig Ten Communications

A 24-team playoff solely spearheaded and dictated by the SEC and Big Ten is the only thing that can save college football. It's the only way to almost 100% ensure that money-printing programs like Alabama and Notre Dame –who each just narrowly missed the 12-team playoff in recent years– will never be unfairly persecuted again by the playoff committee for results that happened on the field. We simply cannot rob the powers-that-be of massive potential revenue generation any longer.

Can't you see it now? A 24-team bracket comprised of 20 Big Ten/SEC teams, Notre Dame, a team from each of the ACC/Big 12, and a single "non-revenue" spot for a G6 program nobody cares about like Boise State - or whoever that year's Tulane/James Madison is. 23 teams (and one tag-along), driving us to revenue paradise. To offset the financial losses that including a G6 team would surely bring, we could put some corporate branding on their playoff spot, and maybe even make them compete in their own little mini-playoff for it!

I'll leave you with these quotes Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork made during a recent conversation with Eleven Warriors. He hits the nail on the head of why I think fans will ultimately love a 24-team playoff:

“I'm a believer in expansion. I think it's good for the game of football. The games have never been more popular.…The fact that we have content that is valuable, live sporting content in today's environment where everything's sort of on demand, has never been more valuable....(the CFP should expand) for the greater whole of the enterprise of college sports and the commercial activity, the content, the TV negotiations."

Well said, Ross. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I look forward to rooting on the commercial activity, content, and TV negotiations of playoff expansion even more than I root on any of the teams who make it.

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