{"id":667232,"date":"2026-05-27T02:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/667232\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:56:08","slug":"kentucky-head-coach-will-stein-is-in-favor-of-cfp-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/667232\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Head Coach Will Stein is in Favor of CFP Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual SEC Spring Meetings have transformed from a procedural affair into an important part of the offseason calendar. Coaches and administrators gather to share their grievances, then search for solutions to fix many of the problems in the world of college athletics. During Will Stein<\/a>\u2018s first trip to Destin, he didn\u2019t hesitate to speak his mind, although he admitted he probably wasn\u2019t the loudest voice in the room. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would be lying if I told you it wasn\u2019t pretty surreal when I\u2019m placed in between Kirby Smart<\/a> and Lane Kiffin<\/a>,\u201d Stein shared with Paul Finebaum<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mark Stoops rarely joined the SEC Network on camera for a Q&A, but the new Kentucky head coach couldn\u2019t pass up his first opportunity to sit alongside Paul Finebaum. The voice of the SEC prodded for some gossip, but didn\u2019t get much. Stein and Jon Sumrall<\/a> chatted about their Morgan Wallen concert experiences. However, things did get more interesting when the subject turned to the College Football Playoff. <\/p>\n

Greg Sankey wanted to nip CFP expansion talks in the bud<\/a>, but it\u2019s unavoidable. The Kentucky head coach didn\u2019t hesitate to share his thoughts on the matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a few more people in the playoffs from this league, because it is the best league in America, and the nine-game schedule obviously is different challenges for guys in this league, so you know we\u2019re all fighting the good fight,\u201d said Stein. <\/p>\n

The fight to reach the Playoff is an uphill climb for Kentucky. The Cats have one of the ten most difficult schedules in college football this year, and that\u2019s not changing anytime soon. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis league\u2019s so hard. You have nine conference games. We play Louisville at the end of the year. Jeff Brohm\u2019s doing a great job over there. So to me, we got to go bigger,\u201d said the Kentucky head coach. <\/p>\n

Kentucky is a program that could stand to benefit from an expanded CFP. If a 12-team format had been in place in 2018, Mark Stoops<\/a> could\u2019ve logged a pair of CFP appearances during his tenure. Stein\u2019s last two seasons at Oregon ended in the College Football Playoff. As the sport evolves, that is becoming the standard, one he wants to achieve in Lexington. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think fan bases across the country all want a shot at the title. Every team does, and not to say that going to an elite bowl game is bad, because it\u2019s not, but I do think getting to the College Football Playoff is the goal of every team, and then advance through it, and give yourself a chance to play for a title, is what everybody wants to do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Listen to Will Stein\u2019s entire conversation with Paul Finebaum<\/a>, beginning around the 14-minute mark of today\u2019s podcast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The annual SEC Spring Meetings have transformed from a procedural affair into an important part of the offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-667232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}