PLAYOFF EXPANSION
I was personally delighted to read this week that the are now concrete plans to increase the playoffs from the current 4 teams to 12 in 2026 with the aim to bring this forward by maybe two years to 2024.
The current system does not work I believe, here we are in week two and there is a strong possibility that Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia will occupy 3 of the 4 places with only a few other blue bloods fighting for the last place, how can that be good for the game? Under that structure the best players will be drawn to these few, thus it becomes effectively a closed shop. Now that 12 places will be available this will give something like 20 teams with a realistic chance to get one of the 12 golden tickets.
Then what about the matches? in the last few years particularly the semi finals have been quite frankly boring blow outs. Now look what match ups we would have had last year
Ole Miss v Oklahoma State bye Alabama
Georgia v Pittsburgh bye Baylor
Notre Dame v Utah bye Cincinnati
Ohio State v Michigan State bye Michigan
Now, there are some mouth-watering match ups would you not agree and many of the matchups would be ultra-competitive which after all is what all fans wish to see (less cupcake games please). The other advantage is that a team can get “hot” later in the season after a slow start and the odd loss then come right through to win it all.
Lastly whether you wish to ignore it or not College football is big bucks and just imagine the additional revenue from match day tickets and TV rights the above matches will bring in. I’m amazed it has taken the Universities this long to see it
MARINO
As some of you will know, my daughter Marino is now very interested in The Vols and she has decided to set up a blog at
www.aviewfrombigben.com .Her aim is to try to introduce English, American Football fans, whom there many who follow the NFL, to also follow College Football and specifically Tennessee. She has also asked me to contribute to the blog, which of course I will be delighted to do so. But I still plan to continue to post here at Volnation which has brought me such happiness over the last thirteen years
QUEEN
Very sad to hear the news of our beloved Queen who died today.
A true monarch who took on the role that she was born into as a life of service. My admiration is even more by the way she always avoided taking sides (take notice some of the younger royals) believing that her job was to represent everybody.
GOD BLESS YOU MA`AM
Now, let’s go and beat Pitt !!
We look forward to reading your comments.
GO VOLS
