By: Robert Craft

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

If you’ve been living off the grid, you missed the big news last week.

College football is headed towards expanding the Playoffs to 12 teams. Let’s break down which programs are going to benefit the most on the field.

1.UCF: Through the past five years, the Knights have been widely regarded as the most capable Group-of-5 program.

Add Cincinnati and Boise State to that mix, and with expansion, there is now a seat at the table for really talented and fun to watch teams that may come once every few years for a program.

These types of teams have historically been an afterthought to the committee for the College Football Playoffs.

2. Georgia: Georgia has made the Playoffs in the past, but now the Bulldogs aren’t at the mercy of Alabama.

Kirby has built an elite level roster; and instead of making it once every ten years, Georgia is going to make it every. single. year.

3. Every Second Tier Big 12, Big 10, ACC, and SEC teams.These programs will no longer have to conquer the powerhouse programs in their conference to make the Playoffs.

When the Playoff expansion hit, the first person I thought about was Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. Given his troubles surrounding Tennessee, I’d make a strong case that UCF is a better job than dealing with the SEC.

Most fans don’t view the Group of 5 as worthy of a playoff spot because they don’t play a Power 5 schedule, and/or they don’t recruit at the same level. The Best G5 teams every year still end up very, very good.

Now some of these G5 programs UCF, Cincinnati, SMU and Boise State (to name a few) actually have something to sell. These teams have better resources and support than most of their peers at the same level, and they suddenly have a fighting chance of making the Playoffs on an annual basis, more so than middle tier Power 5 teams.

If the Playoff expansion is approved, UCF, SMU, Cincinnati and Boise State are the real winners in terms of how this will help the schools improve their recruiting.

The losers in this expansion are Notre Dame and the Pac 12. The PAC 12 commissioner and athletic directors want automatic bids for conference winners. Unfortunately, they are likely not alone in this discussion.

Notre Dame cannot receive a playoff bid due to no conference affiliation. Look for the Irish to join the ACC in the near future.

While the College Football Playoff expansion to 12 is expected to be formally approved as soon as August, it’s not going to take effect immediately. The earliest it could take effect is 2023.

When there is more money available, that usually leads to more business opportunities. For college football, more opportunities usually leads to realignment and expansion among conferences.

My question is, will expansion kill the hype around the mid-level bowls games?