Alabama defeated Georgia Monday night to win the College Football National Championship. Many have argued that the Crimson Tide should not have even been selected to the four-team playoff, advocating for Ohio State, Southern California or even UCF instead. Because of this debate, many have stated they think that expanding the playoff would solve these debates, and would give more teams a chance to win. However, expanding the playoff should not happen because it doesn’t solve these issues; it just rewards less deserving teams.

The talk of expanding the playoff has been inevitable, since the College Football Playoff took over for the BCS. Eventually, somebody was going to be upset because they got left out, when they thought they deserved to be in. This was the first year that scenario arose and it won’t be the last.

Ohio State finished fifth in the CFB rankings and its argument was that it was a conference champion and had more quality wins than Alabama. Alabama wasn’t a conference champion and its best win was either a fringe top-25 Mississippi State or a Florida State team that lost its quarterback for the season against Alabama and won seven games. Ohio State beat Penn State and Michigan State, and won the Big Ten.

On the other hand, Ohio State lost to Iowa, which went 4-5 in the Big Ten by 31 points. The Buckeyes also played Oklahoma at home, early in the season and lost by 15 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Alabama only lost once, to its rival, Auburn, by 12 on the road.

The debate can go on and on, and there’s pros and cons to each team. There isn’t necessarily a wrong answer to which team should have been fourth. At the end of the day, neither team truly deserved to make the playoff, but one of them had to be chosen. The committee chose the better team over the more deserving team, which almost seemed like a punishment to the number one team, Clemson. 

Expanding the playoff to eight teams would involve including every Power Five conference champion, one Group of Five team and two at-large teams.

This year, there were only three teams deserving of the playoff, so why would you answer the question by adding four spots to the equation? That’s like curving a test, which is cool for the students, but there’s a reason it doesn’t usually happen. I don’t have any interest in seeing Sam Darnold throw four interceptions against Georgia, or UCF talk themselves up because, well I’m not really sure why, and then go and get steamrolled by Clemson. The system isn’t broke, so don’t fix it.

No matter how many teams make the playoff, there’s always going to be debate. They have it every year in the NCAA tournament, but nobody complains about expanding that. If you expand to eight teams, why don’t you just expand to 16? 32? Where do you draw the line?

If there was an eight-team playoff this year, who would the eighth team be? Auburn? TCU? Penn State? Miami? Wisconsin? Auburn lost three games, two of them to playoff teams, but also beat Alabama and Georgia. But would they really let a three-loss, at-large team in the playoff? Wisconsin played a high school schedule, but only lost once, to Ohio State in a close game. TCU got blasted by Oklahoma, twice. Penn State is probably the most deserving team, but they finished tied for second in their division. You can’t look at me and tell me any of those teams deserve another chance at the national championship. There’s no better answer for the eighth team in this scenario than there is for the Alabama-Ohio State debate.

The best part about college football is the regular season. Every single game matters if you want to win the national championship. If you expand to an eight-team playoff, the regular season loses a lot of luster. Nonconference games don’t matter because all you have to do is win the conference.

In 2015, USC played in the Pac-12 championship game with an 8-4 record. If they had won, do you want to see them compete against the Alabamas and Clemsons of the world? I don’t. A four-loss team in the playoffs? Hard pass. I don’t think I want to see a three-loss team in the playoffs either. Why did they lose three games? They can’t be that good if they lost three games. But if you expand the playoff, you’ll have a three-loss team competing for a national championship more often than not.

Watch the games. The semifinals and championship games have been instant classics every year. Clearly, the system isn’t broke, so don’t fix it.