How does USF fit into the College Football Playoff expansion? Or do the Bulls fit?

The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams seems inevitable. Credible national sources are reporting it's basically a done deal for next season.

As long as South Florida remains in the American Conference, the Bulls will have to be perfect or nearly so to receive a bid to even an expanded field. And with power conference teams increasingly unwilling to play Group of 6 teams, their strength of schedule will always be an argument for exclusion.

It also could spell the end of conference championship games, which honestly would be fine with me. High-level power conference teams won't want to add 60 more minutes of wear, tear, and potential injuries when they're already assurred of a playoff berth no matter what.

And, let's just dream a bit, if USF ever does qualify at the top seed for one of the two spots in the American championship game, an upset loss could kick the Bulls to the curb. You prove your mettle through a 12-game meatgrinder of a regular season. A championship shouldn't hinge on the outcome of an arbitrary 13th game.

Win the regular season, go to the playoffs.

It's not complicated.

Not everyone is in favor of expansion. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban made it clear where he stands on this.

American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti -- who, incidentally, does a bang-up job promoting his league -- was all for the expanded playoff when I asked him about it at the recent conference basketball tipoff gathering in Tampa. My question was whether he believed it would open up spots for Group of 6 teams or whether 8-4 and 7-5 power conference teams would gobble up the extra bids.

"I've been pretty consistent on this one. We're in favor of an expanded playoff so long as it creates more access for everybody. Like the days of whether it's the NCAA (basketball) tournament expanding or the (football) playoff expanding, so long as it creates more access for everyone and not some at the cost of others, we're in favor of it," he said.

"You know, the reality is this conference has been a participant from the Group of Six in the playoff more than any other conference. We don't hope to be there. We expect to to be there. An expanded playoff raises the likelihood that multiple Group of Six teams can compete in the playoff. And I think that's a good thing for college football."

Still, you know perennial bubble teams from the Big Ten and SEC will be lobbying hard against the G6 potential entries. And since the playoff is a TV spectacle, teams from outside the P4 have serious headwinds from a ratings perspective.

For iinstance, last year's playoff game between James Madison and Oregon attracted just 4.4 million viewers. Tulane and No. 4-ranked Ole Miss wasn't much better with 6.2 million.

By contrast, Alabama-Oklahoma drew 14.9 million viewers while Miami-Ohio State attracted 14.8 million.

There's also the question of what this means for bowl games.

It won't kill all of them, in my opinion, but there are too many already and several of them need to go. USF's Hawaii Bowl appearance two years ago -- the 5-overtime win over San Jose State -- was a blast. Last year's trip to Orlando for the Cure Bowl? Not so much.

Many of the Bulls starters opted out of the game, USF was playing with an interim head coach after Alex Golesh split for Auburn, and the game was a snore.

There are probably many more ramifications about playoff expansion that we haven't thought about, but we might as well embrace the madness. As a wise man once said, resistance is futile.

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