Tony Elliott in favor of College Football Playoff expansion, warns of 'unintended consequences'

Virginia head coach Tony Elliott is on board with College Football Playoff expansion if it means more opportunities for teams that can make a run. However, 24 might or might not be the right number for the bracket.

As it stands, the CFP goes into its third year as a 12-team College Football Playoff. Virginia nearly made it last year, but fell in the ACC Championship to Duke.

Due to tiebreakers, Duke got in over Miami and if Virginia beat Duke, perhaps Miami doesn’t make the College Football Playoff. As Elliott pointed out, Miami made it to last year’s national championship game and nearly didn’t have the opportunity.

“I don’t know if I know exactly what the right number is. I’m learning more about what the challenges are with each addition of teams to the playoff. I mean, the more the better, right,” Elliott said on Sirius XM. “It just gives more opportunities, I think. I think what you don’t want is, you don’t want teams that are capable of winning a national championship left out, right? And if you just look at our league, you look at, like, Miami. 

“Miami was definitely capable of winning a national championship, and they could have possibly been left out. You know, you think about it, if we win that game, right, in Charlotte, does Miami still get in? And it’d be a travesty if they don’t, because, man, they’re one of the best teams in the country.” 

Elliott is all for opportunity in the College Football Playoff. But with expansion comes sacrifice of other parts of the college football season.

With more College Football Playoff games, comes less importance on certain regular season games since there will be less dire situations at the top of the rankings down the stretch. Not only that, bowl season, which is being diminished at this rate anyway, always loses more luster.

“But at the same time, you don’t want to diminish the importance of games during the season, and then you also have the bowl season that’ll be impacted, right,” Elliott said. “Because college football for so many years … that’s what you play for. It’s an opportunity to play, you know, in the postseason. So I know that our league, you know, we say 24 really, really helps you know the ACC, and I think a lot of the other conferences as well, because the more the merrier, you know? So I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision, because there’s a lot of unintended consequences related to that.”