Alabama Football: Backlash to Pac 12 Playoff expansion complaint

Bring on an expanded CFB Playoff expansion in any format and Alabama Football will continue to dominate. The recently released proposal to a 12-team field has broad support. A big reason Alabama Football fans are in favor is the new format would be merit-based.

The top teams will take part and no added advantage in making the expanded Playoff field will go to a conference champion. The top six ranked conference champions will make the field but no other conference champions will have a guaranteed spot.

With one exception, it appears the decision-makers across the college football world agree. The exception is the Pac 12, which wants its champion to have a guaranteed slot. Outgoing Pac 12 Commissioner said on Friday,

"The Pac-12 supports expansion of the CFP and believes that the Autonomous Five (Power Five) champions should annually qualify for the CFP."

Incoming Pac 12 Commissioner, George Kliavkoff supported the statement released by Larry Scott. Many others in and around the world of college football strongly disagreed.

As reported by ESPN, American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco was quick to state his disagreement.

"guaranteeing each Power 5 conference champion a spot in a potential 12-team playoff format would be “an enormous step in the wrong direction.”"

Aresco pulled no punches when he said,

"The top six conferences, without favor, is merit-based. It’s fair. It doesn’t reward privilege for privilege’s sake."

Aresco’s words were a blow to the already flagging reputation of the Pac 12. Keith Gill of the Sun Belt Conference echoed the same opinion of the Pac 12 rebuttal.

"Playoff spots should be earned and not given. Under the proposed system, if you are a deserving team, you should have no concerns of being left out of the playoff."

No public statements from any other conference official offered support for the Pac 12 plea for amending the expansion proposal. That is not expected to change.

Perhaps even worse for the reputation of the Pac 12 will be pushback from national college football media members. That pushback became a gauntlet on Saturday when Aaron Torres tweeted,

Hopefully, Group of Five conferences will not be insulted by being compared with the Pac 12. The Pac 12 has fine educational and research institutions and good football programs. But already burdened by a slipping national profile, the league’s gridiron programs need to improve enough to make statements where they count – on the football field.

Alabama Football response to the expansion proposal

Nick Saban has been careful to not say much, either positive or negative. He reverts to the default position it is up to others to decide. As always, Saban is focused on the work required for his players to become the best they can be – the number of Playoff games does not matter.

Almost five years ago, much hype surrounded the Alabama Football vs. Southern Cal season opener. The game was no contest, with the Alabama Crimson Tide cruising to a 52-6 win. When the most storied program in any conference suffers such a defeat, a whole conference suffers. The Pac 12 is not back yet, and their Playoff expansion complaint signals they are not close to a credible return.