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Argument: 4-team playoff inevitably leads to bigger playoffs

Issue Report: College football playoffs

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Playoff Smayoff, we don’t need it.” ESPN. April 30, 2008: “The idea of a ‘Plus One’ playoff was voted down by the conference commissioners (plus Notre Dame’s athletic director) in their Hollywood, Fla. meeting. […] I’m OK with that, although I have never been totally against a ‘Plus One’ format. […] Trouble is, once we get ‘Plus One’ format the college football brain trusts won’t stop until they’ve got 16, then z32, then 64.”

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese and Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe came out in December of 2009 against moving the BCS in any way toward a playoff: “There’s a strong sense in that room of the slippery slope view that there’s never been a collegiate or professional playoff that’s stopped at four teams.”[1]