Frederick: A 24-team college football playoff would be a game changer for the Gophers … and many others

· Yahoo Sports

Huntington Bank Stadium rocked to deafening levels last Saturday as Minnesota knocked off Michigan at home for the first time since 1977.

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Fans stormed the field and created a celebration that, as Gophers coach P.J. Fleck noted, is what he believes college football is all about.

This sport boils down to meaningful games and results that produce life-lasting memories. Those are what generate true passion and allegiance.

Which is why the college football playoff expanding to 24 teams — as it’s poised to do as early as next season — would be a home run for Minnesota, and so many other programs in its position.

Reasonable minds can assume the Gophers are not going to win a national championship at any point in the foreseeable future. And with no Big Ten West division title left to pursue, what are the grand aspirations for which programs that regularly reside in the top 30-50 range can aim?

Right now, it’s rivalry trophies and ranked wins. And that’s enough in those weeks. We all were reminded last week what the Little Brown Jug means to the fan base.

But how do you add extra meaning to Minnesota’s game at Purdue on Saturday? What if it carried playoff implications?

Technically, it does. If the Gophers win out, they’ll be in the playoff. If they only lose to Indiana and win all of their other games, they also may get into the dance, though that’s no guarantee. Finishing at 9-3 without any top-15 wins — an excellent season for Minnesota — would almost certainly leave the Gophers on the outside looking in at a 12-team field.

Maximizing your potential and having that still not be enough to get a seat at the big boy table is an uninspiring reality.

But three losses would be good enough to get into the 24-team edition.

Currently, programs like Minnesota and even Iowa (who’s been a slot above the Gophers) have to hope their most talented, experienced rosters align perfectly with their most advantageous Big Ten schedule in the same cycle to make a run at the playoff.

If and when the playoff doubles in size, the top five or six Big Ten teams should all gain entry into the expanded field. At which point, the number of programs with legitimate aspirations to see their name on the bracket would grow exponentially.

Now every game on the Gophers’ schedule would carry significant ramifications, with the possibility every year that the axe battle with Wisconsin would be a playoff play-in game for at least one of the teams, if not both.

Drama. Meaning. Memories.

Expansion naysayers cite a devaluing of the regular season as their frequent rebuttal against growing the playoff admittance policy. That’s only referring to the elites.

Yes, this weekend’s Georgia-Alabama game would mean even less if both teams were almost assured playoff participation regardless of the result. But this sport is already so heavily geared toward the most prominent programs with endless resources available to them.

Let’s think of everyone else, for once.

November contests between Iowa and Illinois will mean far more if the winner increases their playoff chances 10-fold versus better positioning themselves to play in the Music City Bowl.

Will Iowa win the national title if it reaches the playoff? No. Does that matter? No. There’s signifcant value in the experience and achievement of reaching the playoffs. It drives engagement and loyalty. It raises the level of local commitment to the sport.

Give programs like Minnesota a lofty, yet reachable carrot to chase from August through November on an annual basis and witness the way fan bases buy in.

Because they’ll dare to dream of a suddenly, finally achieveable reality.

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