Andy Staples pushes back against Danny White’s support for 24-team CFP

On3’s Andy Staples pushed back on the idea of a 24-team CFP, which gained support from Tennessee AD Danny White. Funny enough, most in the SEC have pushed back against the idea of further playoff expansion, or at least, going from 12 to 24 teams.

Those who were against initial expansion of the CFP claimed it would devalue the regular season. Through two iterations of a 12-team bracket, that appears to be false, as Staples put it.

But going to 24 would certainly devalue the regular season as the CFP would have too many teams “safely” in at the end of the year. Then, they are just playing games to play.

But first, White’s comments were telling, regarding where he thinks the CFP is going to go. At least, he’ll be an advocate for a 24-team CFP.

“I’d like to see it go to 24,” White said, via News Channel 5. “I think you look at the percentage of the field and football, it’s significantly less than than every other sport that we have, and we’ve the expanded playoff. I’ve always been an advocate for it since way before I even came to Tennessee, I thought it would be better for the regular season. There were a lot of naysayers that said it would decimate the regular season. And what happened? We had higher ratings in the regular season than we’ve ever had before, particularly in the back third of the regular season, when more teams are in the hunt, which is healthy. 

“And I think we see that in all of our other sports. But a bigger percentage of SEC teams, a bigger percentage of just FBS teams in general, should qualify for the postseason if we’re going to crown our national champion that way, and we clearly are.”

That’s when Staples pushed back on the notion that 24 teams is good for the CFP. Stay at 12, please and thank you.

“Danny White says everybody predicted it would kill the regular season, going to 12, and the regular season actually became more interesting. Which is what, when you and I argued about this for years, I said the regular season would be more interesting,” Staples said on Andy and Ari On3. 

“What I’m arguing now, and I realized I’m the one who said it would be more interesting at 12, and I think I was right. I also think I’ll be right if it goes to 24 where you will have less interesting games at the top, because the teams that are really safely in, they’re going to be so safely in that their games are not going to matter as much. Now. they’ll matter for seeding and that sort of thing, but I think there has to be a level of danger. And I do think there’s still a level of danger for most teams now with 12, and I think that’s what keeps it interesting.”