After years of resistance to change, NCAA Division I football finally implemented a new playoff system this season, and it crowned Ohio State the “first true champion” of Division I football.  The new system set up a four-team playoff for the championship rather than just a single game.  MFS reaction to the new system has generally been positive.

Freshman Class President Vishal Doshi, wearing an Ohio State t-shirt, likes the system.  “It’s better because this year we saw that a four can beat a one,” adding later that without the new system Ohio State wouldn’t even have been in.

Fellow Ohio State fan and MFS Athletic Director Danielle Dayton said she “loved the new system. … I think any system that is put into place is not going to be perfect, but I think it was a huge improvement from the previous system.”  Dayton explained that she loved the system because it “went from 100% or mostly computer-based decisions to having a committee that takes not only the statistics into account but also takes into the emotion and the real-feel side of it.”

As soon as the coveted new system has arrived, there has been speculation about expanding it further. Response to further expansion has been more mixed. MFS Junior Julian Perkowski said he wants the NCAA to “expand it to eight” to give more teams a chance.

History Department Chair and avid sports fan Clark Thomson, however, staunchly disagreed.  “It’s supposed to be the best team, more teams gets away from that,” he argued. Thomson said with more teams it becomes about winning a tournament, rather than having the best team.

Dayton mildly supported further expansion, saying that she “wouldn’t mind seeing eight, because I just think that would be more football.”