ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips Calls for College Football Playoff Expansion After Notre Dame Snub

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips seems to be determined to repair his conference’s fractured relationship with Notre Dame.

On Wednesday, Phillips made the case for expanding the College Football Playoff (CFP) in the wake of Notre Dame’s highly controversial exclusion from the 12-team bracket this year.

“There’s such heartache at that cutline right now,” Phillips said. “And, what I would say is, my barometer about what’s enough and what’s not enough is — if you’re leaving teams out of the Playoff that could win a national championship, then you don’t have the right number. We experienced it two seasons ago with Florida State, the only undefeated team to not make the Playoff at 13-0. And that’s when it was at four.

“Last year, one of our schools was in a similar situation, SMU and Alabama. SMU was in, and Alabama was out. But all of the schools, right now, at the cutline deserve to be in.”

Phillips didn’t mention Notre Dame by name. However, the Irish are certainly at the forefront of that group that “deserve to be in.”

The ACC commissioner is not alone in his belief that expansion is the right way forward. Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua made the case for moving to 16 teams even before learning that the Irish would not be included.

Odds are that the 12-team playoff, which is only in its second year, will not see year three. At the heart of the issue is the automatic qualifiers for conference champions, as well as – and perhaps most importantly – the inclusion of two teams from the so-called group of five conferences.

If Tulane and James Madison weren’t in the current playoff field, not only could Notre Dame get in, but even Texas could find its way in.

Then, it would be very hard to make the case that the best teams in college football weren’t in the playoff. Unlike now, when it’s very easy to make the case that there are at least three teams that shouldn’t be in (Alabama, Tulane, and JMU).

However, should the commissioners elect to keep the G5 and automatic qualifiers intact, a move to a 16-team field is very likely.