Clemson football: 3 reasons Tiger fans would hate 12-team CFB Playoff

The Clemson football program has been a consistent contender for the CFB Playoff for more than the last half-decade, but the system could be changing in the near future.

According to the latest reports coming from several national publications, the “favored” model for CFB Playoff expansion is to move to a 12-team field.

Though the logistics of this potential new playoff field haven’t been discussed, the overarching theme is that it will give each Power-5 conference champion an automatic bid and will give the highest-ranking Group of 5 team an automatic qualifier, as well. The top four seeds in the tournament will be given a bye and then the No. 5 through No. 12 seeds will play the first-round for a chance to advance to the quarterfinals.

There are many elements to love about this for Clemson football fans including:

• An automatic berth for winning the conference
• A little extra cushion for an at-large berth in case you do lose a game (or even two)
• More football, which is never a bad thing
• An opportunity to host playoff games in Death Valley would be sweet (if they went the route of home/away)

But today, we’re going to focus on three reasons why Clemson fans would hate the expanded field if it went to 12 teams.

3. You have to win even more games to come away with a National Title

One of the things that Dabo Swinney has always cautioned when asked about the potential for CFB Playoff expansion is the tough road that it already takes to get to the postseason and win it all.

Clemson has experienced two magical runs over the past six years that culminated in National Championships, but you have to understand that adding another game- possibly two- to the fold makes the road even tougher.

It’s easy for us as fans to be excited about more football, but at some point you’ve got to realize that these players aren’t going to play 15, 16 or 17 games year-in and year-out without fatigue setting in at some point.

When fatigue sets in, injuries can happen and teams can enter games without the right amount of focus.

It’s not the main reason that Clemson fans might hate the expanded playoff, but it certainly doesn’t help that at the golden age of your program’s history, you’ll now (if this was to pass) have to win 16 or 17 games when teams in the past only had to win 12 to accomplish the same feat.