Jim Harbaugh isn't saying anything that plenty of other people haven't thought about.
In fact, what he had to say about the current state of the College Football Playoffs, and changes he'd like to see made to the CFP, seems to make sense to a bunch of people.
But Harbaugh is a big name in the college football world, despite his sub-par record against rivals and top opponents. Perhaps now that he's started speaking — those in charge will start listening.
Here's what Harbaugh had to say about the CFP, per Sports Illustrated:
"I would just analyze it in terms of every other sport whether its gymnastics, basketball, pro football, FCS football ... pick a sport and they have a playoff to get to a champion," Harbaugh said. "None of them start with the last four. You have a great model with the NFL with their 12 teams and a great model in the FCS with their 16 teams and they just (increased) it to 24."
A bigger playoff makes a ton of sense because it gives more schools (thus more fanbases) the opportunity to get involved and that also makes the CFP much more of an event. Sure, as it's currently constructed, being part of the CFP is a big deal and it's very exclusive, but a 16-team format would still be great. Nobody is calling for a March Madness field of 64, but a CFP Sweet 16? Harbaugh seems to think that would make sense, even if the eventual top teams will be playing a ton of games:
"Eight teams would be better than four and 12 would be better than eight," Harbaugh said. "I think 16 is kind of the sweet spot.
"The national champion now is playing 15 games, 14 games for the teams in the playoffs," Harbaugh said. "They are already playing a lot of games."
For what it's worth, Harbaugh's Michigan team wouldn't have been part of this season's CFP if was a 16-team field. In fact, the Wolverines aren't even ranked in the Top 25 right now, so it's not like Harbaugh is being self-serving by floating this idea.
He's known as somewhat of a self-promoting figure, but in this instance, it appears that Harbaugh truly does want to see what's best for college football.
