Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule had no grace for the Group of 5 when discussing the College Football Playoff's decision to include teams like the Tulane Green Wave and James Madison Dukes in the field.
Admitting he was towing the company line and that his opinion sways with whichever direction his career goes, Rhule claimed he wanted to see more SEC and Big Ten schools in the CFP's field. Related: Rhule coaches at a B1G school.
"Obviously, when I was at Temple, I would have argued the other way,” Rhule said, per KETV. “Now that I’m in the Big Ten, though. It’s not even the games you win and lose in the Big Ten. It’s the toll it takes on your team to play in the SEC and Big Ten. We play nine conference Big Ten games and travel all across the country. As a result, we only have three teams in.
“It’s almost like ‘Why are you going through the gauntlet of playing in the Big Ten and SEC?’ I watch the tape and I’m studying other conferences all the time. The SEC and the Big Ten, in my opinion, are just harder conferences. I’d like to see more teams from those conferences, opposed to other ones."
Rhule pushed the idea for an expanded CFP with play-in games, not too dissimilar to the NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament.
"Expanding [the College Football Playoff] would be really cool. I think some play-in Games would be really cool," Rhule said. "Some teams benefited from not being in a conference championship game, so I think in college football, the one thing we’d like to see is uniformity. We all play the same amount of conference games and here’s how the Conference Championship Game works.
"Let’s have automatic qualifiers and have No. 1 play No. 2 and have No. 3 play No. 6. No. 4 play No. 5. Play your way on it.’ You should have to win your way in, and I’d love to see it. It would be such a great step forward."
Group of 5 College Football doesn't deserve to be downgraded
Go to any Group of 5 College Football game during the middle of the week and look around. You'll see mostly-empty stands because the NCAA, though truthfully, ESPN, and the other networks to a lesser degree, tell those student bodies that these games don't matter.
The sport actively stacking the deck against G5 teams winning it all is a slap in the face to the salt of the earth fans who have a love for their school, regardless of the size. Great fans come at every level. Downgrading Division I FBS programs to satisfy the masses, aka the fanbases of juggernaut schools like the Alabama Crimson Tide, which was given a CFP despite not deserving it, is bad for business.
The TV money may come in for Power 4 football signing gaudy media rights deals, but eventually, these smaller programs' folding will harm the ecosystem. College Football needs options, and the more options that matter, the healthier the entirety of the sport is.
This is the fabric of America we're talking about. Many small towns are powered by the less sexy schools.
Stop going down this road, Mr. Rhule, and anyone else higher up in the sport who's not seeing the forest through the trees.