Ohio State AD Ross Bjork believes the potential expansion of the College Football Playoff from 12 teams would not be beneficial for the Buckeyes' chances of winning it, but also thinks the market's need for more content supersedes anything else.
Bjork said, “Selfishly, we should say, let's just go back to four," when asked by Eleven Warriors about potential expansion, but later admitted that the potential profits on the extra streaming content may be too great to ignore.
Bjork also made the point that College Football's regular season would be much improved with the extra chances for teams to make the field.
“I'm a believer in expansion. I think it's good for the game of football,” Bjork told Eleven Warriors this week. “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. Producing more content produces more revenue, which we can give back to the players. I'm all for that side of the equation."
“Now the competitive piece is, look, Ohio State's always been in the conversation. … But I think (the CFP should expand) for the greater whole of the enterprise of college sports and the commercial activity, the content, the TV negotiations. I think it keeps the regular season more alive. If more teams are in the mix, these games are going to mean so much more than they already do, which again drives the value."
“I can live with 16, I can live with 20, 24, whatever the number is, but I just think that it's too valuable right now in the current climate to overlook not expanding. I think we need to expand sooner rather than later. The good thing is, even though we're going to stay at 12 for the 2026 season, that doesn't shut off any expansion talks for the ’27 season. So talks are going to continue, conversations are going to continue, but I just think that given where we are in this landscape and the fact that the product is so valuable, let's create more compelling content and let's get to the right spot.”
Ross Bjork on the money about expansion, but the same problems will exist
Expanding the field puts more money in the pockets of TV execs everywhere. More games help the local economy wherever these games are being played. Moving them on campus would be the best move, but even extra games in various big cities are driving foot traffic and commerce to those areas.
Of course, with an expanded field, you'll have even more teams feeling they should've made the field, since three losses, or even four, could help a team make a 24-team field, depending on how things shake out. A two-loss Group of 5 school will surely have gripes about a three- or four-loss Power 4 program making it in over them.
That's also the point. More angry fans on social media equals free advertising for the sport. It's not like the CFP selection committee will magically get it right with an expanded field. They'll still have their own interests in mind.
Either way, more teams getting a legitimate chance to win it all is good for the sport. More marquee matchups are good for the sport.
Sure, it makes the rich richer, but sometimes you need that for collateral damage that benefits the masses.
More College Football content for College Football fans to consume is one of those rare times.