Ohio State athletic director supports expanded college football playoff
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Ohio State's athletic director expressed his support for expanding the college football playoff to 14 or 16 teams.
Ross Bjork spoke about a possible expansion during a news conference on Thursday, and he thinks that expanding the field can help drive more revenue and would benefit the players.
"For the good of the game, I think for our conference, I think expansion should happen," Bjork said. "Fourteen [games] or 16, I could go either way."
Bjork said that having an expanded playoff field allows players to play in more meaningful games, which can drive more name, image and likeness opportunities for the athletes. He also said the extra content will provide more revenue.
"Let's get the right model that I think produces more excitement, more content, makes the regular season matter," he said.
Bjork added that Ohio State plays Texas the next two years, Alabama the two years after that, and then Georgia down the road.
"If we're going to keep playing those games, then it needs to add up in the playoff calculation; otherwise, you won't see those games, and I think that would be sad for college football," he said.
There will already be changes to the college football playoff beginning this season after the field expanded to 12 teams last season. Teams will now be seeded based on their overall ranking, whereas last year, the top four conference winners received bye weeks, which resulted in a week off for Arizona State and Boise State, despite the teams being ranked 12th and ninth.
The commissioners of 10 conferences, plus the athletic director at Notre Dame unanimously agreed to the changes after last year's format received complaints.
The five highest-ranked conference champions will still be guaranteed spots in the playoff.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.