Picture Clemson entering the South Carolina game at 11–0 with a College Football Playoff spot all but assured. The Tigers would still have a chance to beat their rival and finish the regular season unbeaten. But Dabo Swinney raised a question Monday night that could give coaches something else to weigh.
“Like, why would you play your starters in a rivalry game, for example?” Swinney said on Tiger Hour.
The CFP Management Committee unanimously approved expansion from 12 to 24 teams on Monday, with the new format beginning in the 2027 season. The expanded field will include 19 at-large teams, and the higher seeds will host games in the first two rounds. collegefootballplayoff.com
Swinney pointed to the NFL, where teams sometimes sit starters in the final week of the regular season when their playoff position is set.
“I mean, there’s gonna be some tough decisions, just like you see in the NFL,” Swinney said.
In the future, a win over South Carolina could still improve Clemson’s seed or help bring a playoff game to Death Valley. And a loss in the Palmetto Bowl can follow a coach for a year. The decision gets tougher if the coach believes the result will have little effect on the bracket and has a starting quarterback nursing an injury.
Swinney said he thinks 24 teams are too many. He also made clear where he stands on the prospect of losing conference championship games.
“I hate to see the conference championship games go away,” Swinney said. “I just think that’s a great thing in college football.”
Swinney recalled playing for Alabama in the inaugural SEC Championship Game in 1992. With leagues too big for every team to play one another, he said, a title game gives the finalists a chance to settle it on the field.
“You can’t play everybody in your league,” Swinney said. “So to be able to have a championship game, I just think it’s great.”
The expanded playoff reserves spots for the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC champions and leaves each league to determine its champion.
Swinney said Clemson would embrace the new format, just as it has adapted to previous changes in the postseason. He expects coaches and fans to learn what the bigger bracket changes once teams start playing under it.
“There’ll be some unintended consequences, like everything that happens,” Swinney said.
In South Carolina, one of those consequences would be easy to spot. It would be the starting quarterback on the sideline at kickoff, healthy enough to play, with the Gamecocks across the field and a playoff game ahead.
