A 24-team playoff is too much: How to fix college football's postseason

Despite waves of negative reactions from media and fans alike at nearly every mention, Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti has been slowly building consensus for a 24-team CFP, and he seems to be inching toward success. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, previously a skeptic, expressed support last week, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is already on board. At this point, it appears the SEC's Greg Sankey is the only holdout. He recently -- and correctly -- called the idea of 24 an "unknown."

That's a key word. A 24-team playoff would fundamentally change a fan's relationship with the college football season in a way that no other recent changes have. With conferences' spring meetings kicking into gear, expect Pettiti's push to continue garnering headlines and move closer to perceived inevitability. But instead of simply accepting these changes as foregone conclusions, let's talk about the massive implications the switch would have and what could be done instead.

Expansion is the word of the day. The NCAA basketball tournaments were recently stretched to 76 teams, but that didn't structurally change much; it just added a few more games to the Tuesday/Wednesday docket of play-in games. That might change a fan's experience in filling out his or her bracket, and it certainly takes the marginalization of mid-majors even further, since many will be crammed into those play-in games. (It's not enough that the power conferences have arranged to hoard most of the new revenue in college sports. They have to hoard the access, too.) But the jewel of the March Madness experience is the fire-hose thrill ride of the first weekend of the tournament, and that won't look much different.