BIG 10 SQUAD: The College Football Playoff may EXPAND TO 24 TEAMS | How this impacts Iowa

The Locked On Big Ten Squad podcast dives into the seismic news that college football coaches, through the American Football Coaches Association, have voted in favor of expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams, eliminating conference championship games, and ending the season by mid-January. Hosts Jacob Goins, Roman Tomashov, Jay Stephens, and Isaiah Holt express widespread skepticism and frustration, arguing that expansion undermines the prestige of the playoff, turning it into a 'MySpace' of college football—overcrowded and diluted. They debate whether making the playoff should be a meaningful achievement or just a routine outcome, especially for programs like Maryland, whose win total is set at 4.5. The discussion also tackles the controversial idea of scrapping conference title games, with mixed reactions: while some see it as a necessary step to streamline the season and eliminate inequities, others lament the loss of tradition and history. The panel ultimately agrees that the current system is broken and that money and greed are driving decisions that harm the sport’s integrity. Despite the doom-and-gloom tone, there’s cautious hope that the coaches’ collective voice could spark real change.