The leader of the University of Georgia is pushing back against proposals to dramatically expand the College Football Playoff system to include 24 teams.
Jere Morehead, who has served as the university’s president since July 2013, made his position clear in comments to The Athletic on Thursday: “A 24-team playoff is a mistake.”
As Southeastern Conference officials prepare for their upcoming meetings in Destin, Florida next week, Morehead expressed concerns that the Big Ten conference hasn’t fully considered what such a major expansion would mean for college football’s future.
“It’s going to devalue big games during the regular season,” Morehead explained. “I think it (would) devalue Georgia-Alabama or Georgia-Oklahoma (this) year. So I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Instead of jumping directly from the current 12-team format to 24 teams, Morehead suggested a more gradual approach would be wiser.
“I was OK with going to 16. I thought that was a good number. But 24 scares me, particularly jumping from 12 to 24. If we went to 16 and tried that for a few years, see how it goes, and then we can evaluate whether we should go to 24. And from my standpoint, I would just stay at 12 then, if we can’t get an agreement on 16,” he said.
Morehead indicated he would follow the lead of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on this issue, saying the commissioner’s opinion carries the most weight with him.
“As long as commissioner Sankey is at 16, I think we’ll be at 16,” Morehead stated, “because I think there’s great respect for his position on any issue.”
The Big Ten’s 24-team proposal has gained support from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, and independent Notre Dame.
However, Morehead worries about how such an extensive playoff system might hurt regular season attendance and viewership.
“I think there’s a lot of concern about what 24 is going to do to the regular season,” he explained. “You know, we depend on these sellout home games, the high ratings that we get for our football games during the season. If those become devalued and if those ratings drop because people see it like the NBA, that these games don’t matter anymore, then that affects our situation, in terms of being able to negotiate the next television contract. That’s concerning to me.”
“And I’m not sure that the Big Ten has really thought through the long-term implications of what this is going to do to the regular season,” Morehead concluded.
