LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry expressed support Friday for the College Football Playoff’s pending expansion from 12 to 24 teams.
Ausberry told the LSU board of supervisors during its regularly scheduled meeting that Southeastern Conference schools are disadvantaged in the current 12-team CFP because strength of schedule isn’t weighed heavily enough by the selection committee.
The SEC requires its schools to play nine conference games while also scheduling a nonconference matchup with a Power Four school. The Big Ten doesn’t require its teams to play a Power Four team out of conference.
“For the last three years, they won the national championship in football, and they have not played a Power Four … school,” Ausberry told the board. “That’s why we feel that it helps us. It helps us financially. The first two games would be on campuses. So you could have two playoff games on your campus here. Then there’d be a quarterfinal game, a semifinal game, then a championship game. So we feel that’s why the 24 was best for us.”
According to reports, the move to 24 teams in the CFP would result in the elimination of conference championship games.
Ausberry acknowledged there was a “back and forth” on how far to expand beyond the current 12-team format. Doubling the field should, theoretically, allow SEC schools to snatch more playoff bids despite scheduling differences.
“It was at 14 at one time. It was at 16 at one time,” Ausberry said. “We said, you know what, they don’t take the strength of conference into play (with fewer CFP slots). And we thought taking the strength of conference, in the SEC, was more beneficial to us.”
LSU coach Lane Kiffin has expressed similar misgivings about the strength of SEC schedules compared to other conferences, especially since the SEC moved from eight to nine conference games this season.
The No. 22 Tigers (4-2, 1-2 SEC) will be fighting for their CFP lives in their final six conference games after suffering road losses at Ole Miss and Kentucky by a combined nine points.
“I think you can lose two to three games and still be a team that contends for a playoff,” Ausberry told The Advocate after his remarks to the board. “There’s a lot of good teams we think in the SEC that can miss out.”
Ausberry referred to last year’s playoff, which didn’t feature 9-3 Texas or 10-2 Vanderbilt. The Longhorns lost a regular-season opener, 14-7, to Ohio State.
“They got left out of it,” Ausberry said. “I think (24 teams) gives more opportunity for our teams, the teams we play, and the schedule we play … and I also think it’ll help us also schedule bigger games against other opponents like the Notre Dames or the Ohio States or the Michigans.
“Because now you don’t have to worry about, OK, you lose a game, you might not make the playoffs. So now it affords you to play those tougher and bigger games.”
The CFP has yet to officially announce it has agreed with ESPN on an expansion to 24 teams, but it’s been widely reported that a deal is nearing completion.
Ausberry confirmed the expanded playoff should start next football season.
“All indications we’re getting is 2027. That’s what we’re getting from the conference and everyone else,” Ausberry said. “So that’s where we got that from.”
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