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Wisconsin football: Impact of 12-team College Football Playoff

A look at what the College Football Playoff's expansion to 12 teams means for the Wisconsin Badgers.

Matt Belz

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After a summer filled with conference expansion, most notably the Big Ten poaching USC and UCLA from the Pac-12, it is only logical that the College Football Playoff was next.

On Friday, the College Football Playoff Board of Managers unanimously voted to expand the playoff to 12 teams, according to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated. While there are still plenty of aspects to the change-up in the air, the tentative plan is to begin the 12-team format in 2026 when the current contract ends, though school presidents are hoping to implement it earlier if possible.

The shift to include eight additional teams will dramatically alter the landscape for Wisconsin and the rest of the Power 5. Here is a look at some of the more immediate ways the announcement will impact the Badgers. 

Easier access to College Football Playoff

Expansion to 12 teams will open the door for more teams to participate in the playoff. For Wisconsin, the Big Ten is one of the most difficult conferences to play in across college football, so having a greater chance at accessing the playoff is exciting. 

The new format will feature six automatic bids for the six highest-ranked conference champions and six best-ranked at-large teams in the College Football Playoff Rankings. 

With 12 bids available, Wisconsin could still make the playoff by winning the conference outright but will also have a chance to make the field without a conference title. Based on the proposed structure, the Badgers would have made the playoff in three of the eight previous seasons. Wisconsin would have likely been an at-large pick in 2016, 2017, and 2019. 

Having the opportunity to potentially make a run at a national title is the ultimate goal for most teams, and the Badgers have been knocking on the door for contention for the past decade. The playoff affords more teams a chance to make a run, Wisconsin included. 

While the 12-team model would improve the odds that teams like the Badgers make the playoff, a field of 12 teams also virtually assures some of the top teams in the sport an easier path to the playoff too. For example, Ohio State would have made the playoff in each of the past eight seasons under this assumption, giving the top programs a second chance after losing early in the year.

A playoff game at Camp Randall stadium?

While there are positives and negatives associated with the professionalization of college football and increased importance placed on the playoff, the new proposal would also feature home-site games for the first-round matchups.

That means a potential playoff game inside Camp Randall at some point, if the Badgers were to make the playoff. According to Brett McMurphy of the Action Network, the first-round games would be on campus, while the quarterfinals and semifinal contests would take place at bowl sites.

The energy and excitement of home games are unmatched in college sports, so that is potentially great news for Wisconsin. Additionally, the possible revenue generated for local businesses and the state would be significant.

To put this into perspective, working under the assumption that the higher seed hosts, the Badgers would have hosted three games in the playoff era previously. Wisconsin would have hosted USC in 2016, Washington in 2017, and Florida in 2019, at least based on the final rankings as they were at the time.

Each of those games would have been exciting and winnable for the Badgers, potentially allowing the Badgers to move on to the quarterfinals for additional games. 

More Big Ten expansion talk

Over the past week or so Oregon and Washington have each had conversations with the Big Ten about potentially joining the conference, per Brett McMurphy. 

The conference does not seem to be done adding additional teams, as Notre Dame is still also one of the most highly-sought after schools for the conference. 

So what does that mean for the future of conferences? Will the Big Ten and SEC, who are trending towards being bigger and stronger than others have the same allotment of spots in the playoff? 

The playoff is just one part of the ongoing expansion talks for the Kevin Warren the Big Ten, but best believe it is an important element under consideration. The conference will want to secure as many bids as possible in the playoff, and those spots will probably grow with an expanded conference with big name brands. 

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Matt Belz
MATT BELZ

Title: Publisher, Beat Writer for AllBadgers.com, a Sports Illustrated Channel Hello, my name is Matt Belz, and I am the site manager at All Badgers. I previously wrote for multiple years at Buckeyes 5th Quarter and have been the leading publisher here since March of 2022.  When I am not covering the Wisconsin Badgers football and men's basketball teams, I enjoy being outside and spending time with family and friends.  You can follow everything I write about on several different platforms. First and foremost on our site...AllBadgers.com You can follow me personally on Twitter at @savedbythebelz or check out our Facebook page at Wisconsin FanNation on Sports Illustrated.

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