A silly (greedy) idea

 College football opened up this weekend with Iowa State beating Kansas State in Ireland, Hawaii beating Stanford in Hawaii and various Kansases, UNLVs and Western Kentuckys winning in other locales. We're off and sorta running.

Guess that means it's time for the Blob to address the Big Ten's latest harebrained scheme, which is to more than double the size of the College Football Playoff and make the entire deal even more of a joke than it might already be.

The Big Jon And Kate Plus 8 rolled out a plan recently to take the current 12-team CFP to as many as 28 teams, which is both silly and -- hello -- greedy. This is because under the Big Ten's construct, guess who would get the most automatic qualifiers?

Thaaat's right, class: The Big Ten. Oh, and the SEC, the other Godzilla of college football. 

The visionaries in the Big Ten see a field comprised of seven automatic qualifiers apiece from the Godzillas; five apiece from the sorry-ass ACC and Big 12; two for cruds like the MAC and the Mountain West; and two at-large teams (i.e., Notre Dame, and Notre Dame). To cram in all the extra games, conference championship tilts would be cast into outer darkness.

"But that only eliminates one weekend of games, Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "What are they gonna do, play 'til Washington's birthday?"

Nah. My guess is they'll make a whole lot of previously undistinguished bowl games Official College Football Playoff Games.

The Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl? Playoff game! SERVPRO First Responder Bowl? Playoff! Radial tire bowls, lawn implement bowls, the Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl?

Playoff, playoff, playoff. It's a veritable Playoffpalooza y'all!

Of course, most of the extra 16 teams the Big Ten wants to add to the CFP won't remotely belong there, but, hey, it's all about the Benjamins for the Power Four. The Big Ten and SEC in particular already sit on entire mountain ranges of cash, but when has more ever been enough in the corporate era of college football?

So, sure, let's invite, um, Minnesota to the big spellin' bee. The Golden Gophers finished seventh in the Big Ten last year, which means, under the Big Plan, they'd get in, even though they barely finished above .500 (5-4) in the conference. But they crushed Nevada and Rhode Island, so they're worthy, right?

Ay-yi-yi. 

You can see now why practically everyone has been bashing this notion as stupid and unworkable -- including Rece Davis on ESPN's College Football Countdown, who the other day called it "absurd." Proponents (i.e.: The Big Ten) might argue that the 68-team NCAA basketball tournament includes a lot of un-worthies, too, but basketball is not football. In the former, two or three players on a given night can level the playing field between a Little and a Big; in the latter, the enormous resources required to field a powerhouse make that virtually impossible.

In other words, a Fairleigh Dickinson ain't beatin' a Purdue in the CFP. Or, say, a Toledo beatin' an Alabama.

"Well, what about Northern Illinois beating Notre Dame last year?" you're saying now. "Or all those MAC schools who regularly beat Big Ten schools every year?"

They do that in September. In January, in the CFP? Not a chance.

But, hey. Think how much money the Big Ten will make off Minnesota's 35-12 loss to Georgia in the first round. Cha-ching, baby!