Matt Rhule Joked About a 40-Team Playoff and Everyone Missed the Punchline

In the context of a conversation about scheduling imbalance and playoff accessibility, Rhule’s exaggerated quip about 40 teams was a tongue-in-cheek way to highlight real concerns about fairness in college football, particularly between power conferences like the Big Ten and SEC.

The Big Ten requires nine conference games. The SEC, on the other hand, requires only eight, giving its teams an extra nonconference game that is usually far easier to win. Rhule used this contrast to point out how a tougher schedule can skew records and make postseason qualification more difficult for Big Ten programs.

“If you play in this league, you deserve a chance to get to the postseason and see what you can do,” Rhule said.

Last season offered a perfect example of why Matt Rhule's larger point about playoff access matters. Indiana finished the regular season with just one loss—to eventual Big Ten champion Ohio State—but even with that strong résumé, there were loud voices arguing the Hoosiers didn’t deserve a spot in the playoff.

It wasn’t until both Ole Miss and Alabama lost late in the year that Indiana was safely in the field. That kind of uncertainty, despite a near-perfect record in a tough conference, highlights the flaws in a system that often rewards brand names over actual performance on the field.

That was the essence of his point. He wasn’t campaigning for nearly half the FBS to make the playoffs; he was using humor to spotlight systemic inequities. It was a classic case of saying something over-the-top to make a point—something Rhule has done before and will likely do again.

Ultimately, Rhule’s comment wasn’t about inflating the playoff field to an absurd degree. It was about fairness, opportunity, and making sure programs aren’t left out simply because of how their conference structures the season. His humor just happened to make the message go viral—and maybe that’s the point.


In a sport where serious change is slow and often controversial, sometimes a joke is the best way to get people to pay attention.

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