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Rece Davis Tells The Truth About College Football Playoff Expansion

Originally posted on The Spun | By Andrew Gould | Last updated May 25, 2025 1:12 PM ET

The College Football Playoff could keep expanding, but Rece Davis doesn't think there's any solution to satisfy everyone.

After multiplying the CFP field from four teams to 12, college football is seeking an extended bracket as soon as 2026. On their College GameDay podcast, Pete Thamel called 16 teams the "desired landing spot."

Davis is skeptical of college football ever finding a perfect CFP formula.

"No matter how many good intentions there are, and no matter how many hours they spend in committee, and no matter how many studies they do and points of data they analyze, they're not going to get it right because they can't," Davis said. "There's no such thing as right."

When Thamel asked what's wrong with trying a 16-team field, Davis responded that the 17th team won't be happy.

Davis argued that "somebody will get the shaft" in any system. He also speculated that the SEC and Big Ten each receiving four automatic qualifiers could bite them when a deserving fifth team misses the cut.

"I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to happen, the automatic qualifiers," Davis said. "I don't like it because I think there will be a year where either the Big Ten or the SEC -- maybe one year it will be both -- they're gonna get hosed."

The College GameDay host reasoned that college football has already tried the most sensible approaches to identifying the nation's best teams. Each faced a groundswell of criticism, so he doesn't see fans accepting any format.

"There's no foolproof system here," Davis claimed. "There are two that aren't foolproof but are probably best. One is to develop a formula -- everybody hated that -- and then whatever the formula says, that's who gets in. That's not going to happen because people didn't like it before.

"And the other is to establish a group of people who would watch the games and evaluate various sets of criteria and data. And then they would decide who gets in. Oh, right. That's what we have. We don't like that either."

Perhaps there's a compromise. Davis proposed blending the new and old systems to create a BCS-like criterion that includes data and enhanced subjectivity. Even then, some teams excluded by that process will ultimately feel slighted.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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