In this day and age of the College Football Playoff, it appears that tweaks are being made on a season-by-season basis. Although multiple changes have been made, including the expansion of the Playoff and a more fair way to seed teams, David Pollack remains unhappy with the format.
Pollack joined Greg McElroy on the Feb. 16 edition of ‘Always College Football‘, where he went over multiple things that he was unhappy about. Pollack first mentioned the seeding, although it would be hard to change that. Teams with a First Round bye are 1-7 (with the lone exception being Indiana in 2025) over the past two seasons, leading to many believing that there should be a more fair way to evaluate the teams who have earned the top seeds.
“What we’ve got right now… it just ticks me off,” Pollack said. “We’ve always had problems, but this year with the Lane (Kiffin) thing, it pushed me over the edge. First of all, we got top four seeds getting a bye fixed. Now, is that advantageous? Teams that get byes are 1-7. So something is not going right off that point. We’ve got that fixed.”
Second of all, Pollack campaigned for the abolishment of conference championships. Although Indiana won both the Big Ten title and the National Championship Game this season, many have argued that it doesn’t seem fair for certain teams to have to play an extra game before playing in the Playoff, while others got a bye that week.
“But now, let’s move on from conference championships,” Pollack continued. I would love to see conference championships go away. I used to prioritize them and I sat with Kirby Smart last year and asked him how much an SEC Championship means. He said ‘it means a lot. It means a ton, but with the calendar and what we’re doing, it shouldn’t mean that much. It shouldn’t be a punishment to go play in the SEC Championship Game’. And like, I think he’s right. I don’t think it’s an advantage to go play in that game. You can get rid of conference championship games because they don’t mean that much.
Finally, the former two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year campaigned for more home games, the removal of G5 teams from the field, and an expansion of the Playoff. The three G5 teams that have made the College Football Playoff in the past two seasons (Boise State, Tulane, and James Madison) were outscored 123-58 in their three games.
“I want to see home games. I would love to see more home games. Do another round of home games. Neutral sites aren’t that great. It’s so much better when those games are at home and the energy is through the roof and it’s amazing. Don’t ever give me two G5 teams again, and don’t give me any G5 teams again. We don’t really need G5 teams in this. They’re not in there to win it or be competitive. I understand what we’re doing having people that can obtain goals and stuff, but they can’t win it. They can barely compete in a game and make it a game where it’s remotely close.
“I think there’s still a lot to be fixed. It would be advantageous to move to a couple higher numbers (of teams in the Playoff) because two years ago you had Alabama and Ole Miss sitting on the outside that you can make a case for, and Miami this year was on the edge teetering and played for (the National Championship). It shows more teams can get hot and make a run.”