Danny Kanell suggests college football follow the expansion path set by the World Cup

Danny Kanell has been one of the best supporters of continued expansion of the college football playoff and the former FSU quarterback says that the sport could take a page from the World Cup. 

The World Cup expanded to 48 teams this year and added an extra stage to the knockout round.  It proved to be a huge success from a ratings and interest standpoint beyond the involvement of the U.S. team. The additional games and exposure to more teams led to great stories like Cape Verde's inspiring run and the emergence of Norway's Erling Haaland as a global superstar. 

Kanell believes that college football could learn from the World Cup and embrace expansion in the playoffs. 

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"Expansion should be embraced, not something feared and pushed back against," Kanell said in a video he dropped on social media. "The regular season? I get it. People want to protect it. The same people said [the playoff] would be ruined if we went to 12 teams. Guess what? It didn't. In fact, it made it even better."

Danny Kanell continues his quest for CFP expansion

Kanell is always a bit of a firestarter. Some people are going to agree or disagree with his comments based on the messenger alone, but he does have some points and there's been a great deal of hypocrisy from the same people trying to stop CFP expansion for the claims of "preserving the regular season". When the SEC and Big Ten decided to begin their takeover plan with super conferences, was preserving the regular season part of the thought process? How did destroying the Pac-12 or cutting the Big 12 off at the knees help college football as a whole? 

The Big 10 wants CFP expansion to 24 teams. The Big 12 and the ACC seem to be behind them, but the SEC is trying to slow everything down. This has as much to do with television rights as anything. A playoff expansion would put the extra games up for bid, giving FOX, NBC and CBS (the Big Ten TV partners) a chance to broadcast those games and cut into ESPN's rights. As we know, ESPN is the SEC's broadcast partner. 

So would CFP expansion help FSU and the ACC?

The ACC serves to benefit because a 24-team playoff gives the conference additional teams and more life in general. As for FSU, that's a more complicated question. An expanded playoff might deter the rush of the SEC and Big Ten to continue to grow, which would leave the Seminoles outside the big-money conferences. Without other safeguards in place, the wealth gap between the "Big two" and the other Power Four conferences would increase. 

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In some way, the playoff is going to expand, and it's highly likely the SEC loses this fight because they don't have a lot of support from the other commissioners. For what it's worth, both Mike Norvell and AD Michael Alford are on the front lines in support of a 24-team playoff. Some teams, like Miami, have said they like 12, but that's because the Hurricanes got to pocket all the money from last year's run. Right now, expansion is probably the best thing for FSU football. Long term, we'll see if that's still the case. 

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