Inside the College Football Playoff: Formats, Expansion, and Schedule Strength with Rich Clark

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**SPEAKER_4** (1:34)
You are now listening to The War Rapport Podcast Network.

**Ike Jones** (1:53)
And today, got my guy Rich Clark in here. And we're talking a little bit about the conversation that we had with the guys at the press conference. And we're gonna talk about some of the things that we've been talking about. Ike Jones, Independents, Ceasear Walker, and today, got my guy Rich Clark in here.
And we're talking a little bit about the College Football Playoff, because that's your whole job, is to figure all this, well, I don't know if you got to figure it all out by yourself. You got a good staff.

**Rich Clark** (2:17)
Yeah, thank goodness. But I appreciate you having me back. It's always good to be here with you.

**Ike Jones** (2:22)
Yeah, this is your third year now, being a part of SEC Media Days in this capacity. Talk to me a little bit about, I think last year, we talked about lessons that you learned. It was going to be the first year they were going to be doing the hosting and all that kind of thing.
What's been the biggest change that you feel like is happening going into your third year now dealing with the College Football Playoff?

**Rich Clark** (2:45)
Well, I feel like we've really settled down into a good format with the 12-team format. We've made some, I'll just say tweets. We haven't made massive changes, but each year we've gotten just a bit better. I'm expecting this year to be even better.
The campus games in the first round have proven to be very successful. High energy, a good way to kick the playoff off. Then we move into those quarterfinals and semi-finals with our bold partners.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:13)
Yeah.

**Rich Clark** (3:13)
They do a really exceptional job. But last year, the champ game was just off the chain. It was just so good.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:22)
Yeah.

**Rich Clark** (3:23)
We had good teams, great teams, Miami, in Miami and Indiana to travel as well. Put on a great show for everybody and really, I was very happy with the way it went last year. But now, we're talking about format, potential changes.
I think the idea is people want more. They want more access, they want more games, and we're just trying to figure out what's the right number, what's the right amount. That's been a big effort for us offseason is to really work through some of that.

**Ike Jones** (3:53)
Okay, so let's talk about some of the changes and how it's going to impact for this season, right? So, first year of a nine-game SEC regular season where they're going to have nine SEC games as part of that, plus another power conference game. A lot of conversation around whether or not that strength of schedule, you've got 16 teams in this league. All 16, according to strength of schedule, is going to be in the top 20
How weighted is that in the process of selection for you all? And should fans and coaches and players feel like this is a benefit to them to move to this kind of scheduling?