Auburn AD John Cohen wants to see College Football Playoff more closely resemble March Madness
![Western Kentucky v Auburn Western Kentucky v Auburn](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3000,h_1687,x_0,y_47/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/GettyImages/mmsport/215/01hzmbjjk8j460qg1ffm.jpg)
John Cohen doesn't want to see the College Football Playoff become a 68-team tournament like March Madness has become, but the Auburn AD does want to see football's postseason more closely resemble its basketball counterpart's in the future.
"It will evolve, and it should evolve," Cohen said of the CFP (h/t AuburnUndercover). "I don't think a 12-team system or a 14-team system is perfect by any means. One of the things you notice about football versus other tournament sports is the percentage of teams that get to participate in a postseason tournament type of play is much lower in football. I would like to see that grow. … Participation in postseason is an incredible experience that you want as many kids to experience as possible.
"It's a violent sport, and you keep adding teams and more games to the tournament, there's going to be a balance there."
John Cohen has vision for College Football Playoff that may fall flat compared to March Madness
Nothing is more thrilling than a low seed upsetting a higher seed during March Madness. Sure, Auburn felt the downside of that scenario when it parlayed an SEC Tournament Championship win into a Round of 64 elimination at the hands of Yale, but those types of upsets have always fueled interest in college hoops' offseason.
Realistically, would we see similar upsets in college football from an 8-4 team going up against a 13-0 juggernaut? Or would those games more closely resemble Georgia's 65-7 destruction of TCU in the 2022/2023 national championship game? Alabama's 27-6 win over Cincinnati in the 2021 Cotton Bowl feels like a best-case scenario for early-round games.
Football isn't a sport that sees David take down Goliath too often in games that count. Signing up for more blowouts could backfire for the sport if it gets too close to the March Madness bracket model.