College Football Playoff Expansion Should Help Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State has never made the College Football Playoff, but expansion should inevitably help the Cowboys.

Over the past decade and change, the college football world has been ruled by the playoff format. Going from a four-team field to 12 last season shook up things throughout the landscape, and it appears that these immense changes are only getting started.

With proposals to change the college football playoff to 14 or even 16 teams, the postseason is only getting more uncertain by the day.

With the argument over how a 16-team playoff might look continuing over the past few years, it appears that the 5+11 format could be the end result, which would be great news for Mike Gundy’s team. In a potential 5+11 format, the field would simply contain the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large teams.

While there has been some discussion about allotting conferences a certain number of automatic bids, those talks seem to be losing traction, according to multiple reports. If the College Football Playoff adopts the 5+11 format, OSU could be in business.

Throughout Gundy’s tenure, the Cowboys have been in the mix for conference championships and even been in a few national title pictures late in the year. However, with all of those potential title runs coming in years with a BCS national championship or a four-team playoff, the opportunities have been narrowly out of reach.

However, in a 16-team field with only automatic bids for conference champions, the Cowboys could find their way in if history can repeat itself for Gundy and company. Throughout Gundy’s tenure, his team has finished in the top 16 of the final College Football Playoff or BCS rankings seven times.

Including the automatic bids for the top five conference champions under the proposed format, OSU would have been a playoff team in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2021. Add in some other close calls, such as 2015 and 2017, and the Cowboys would have been a consistent playoff contender under Gundy if this format were in place. 

While past success doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything in the future in this world of college sports, Gundy’s track record shows his teams have the ability to compete on the national stage.