By Arianna Marks

Four is the number of college teams that makes the College Football Playoffs each year. There is a total of 130 teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS.)

In 2013, the NCAA started a new system to determine who is the nation’s best football team. The NCAA elects former and current coaches, football players and other staff members from college football teams. Majority of these people use to work for conferences such as the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC and PAC 12.

They make sure to involve a variety or representation to avoid biased selections. The members of this group select which teams go the playoffs and which teams play in regular bowl games. While the selection process is simple and fair, it’s the number of teams that is the problem.

Expanding the playoffs to eight teams will increase revenue and involvement in the NCAA football.

If the number is increased to eight teams, it will give more underdogs a chance. Since this system started in 2013, the teams you mostly see are Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and Oklahoma. These teams have been dominating for years, making it hard for other teams to take their top four spots.

Meanwhile, the spots five through eight have varied throughout the years. More teams in the playoffs means more fans are involved. For example, LSU is currently number seven. They were not ranked last year, and there is no telling where there will rank next season.

With the fans being aware of this, they will pay to see their team fight for a national championship. Having double the amount of fans involved means double the money the NCAA makes. Not only will NCAA make more money, the cities hosting the bowl will make money as well, due to the fans needing hotels, food, etc.

There is the perfect amount of bowl games to host eight teams in the playoffs. With the system we have now, we rotate the bowl games every year. This year is the Orange Bowl and Cotton, Bowl. Next year it will be the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl, followed by the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl after.

Each bowl is located in a different city, so they wouldn’t interfere with each other. They also would not intervene with the NFL playoffs. While the NFL playoffs take place on Saturdays and Sundays, the NCAA hold the semifinals on the Monday before New Year’s, and the national championship game two Mondays later.

NCAA has two options in terms of where to add the extra set of football games. The first option is placing the games in the gap week, making the first round of playoffs the week before New Year’s, the semifinals the following week and keep the national championship during the same week it’s typically been.

The second option is keeping quarter and semifinal games back to back. If they wish to keep a one-week gap between the semifinals and the national championship game, they can make the final game on the third Monday of January. If they do not want to interfere with the MLK holiday, simply put it on Tuesday.

With both of these methods, they do not conflict with the NFL playoffs, let alone, the Super Bowl. With this proposal, there will be more fans, more money, and most importantly, more football.