Nebraska coach Scott Frost stumped for the expansion of the College Football Playoff — and explained again why he chose to return to the Husker football program — during ESPN’s College GameDay preview of the CFP national title game Monday.
Frost, appearing several hours before kickoff of the Alabama-Georgia game, said the CFP needed to expand from four to eight teams so programs like Central Florida — which finished its season undefeated — would have better access to winning the national title. UCF was ranked No. 12 in the committee’s final rankings.
“This year probably proved there’s no way you can get there if you’re a Group of Five team,” Frost said.
College football needs to allow for the “Cinderella” aspect that fuels the NCAA basketball tournament. What’s more, Frost said, the Power Five leagues need to standardize the number of conference games played. The SEC and ACC play eight. The Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 play nine.
“There were a couple times at Oregon when we were playing USC and Stanford in week 11, and Alabama was playing Georgia Southern and Western Carolina,” Frost said. “And we lost those games. This year, Wisconsin had to play two more extra conference games than Alabama, and they lost one. I’d like to see those things become standardized so that it’s an even playing field.”
Frost wasn’t picking random teams, either. In 2011, Oregon lost to USC in week 11 while Alabama beat Georgia Southern. In 2012, Oregon lost to Stanford in week 11 while Alabama beat Western Carolina.
Both seasons, Alabama won the national title.
Like Nebraska, Alabama went through a period of on-field struggles until the Crimson Tide hired Nick Saban, who has won four national titles since 2009.
“It happens to a lot of programs, it happened to Nebraska,” Frost said of Alabama’s dip in success for the decade before Saban’s arrival. “I hope we’re the people to bring it back.”
Frost said he returned to Nebraska because he thought the conditions were right for him to do so.
“There’s been some things broken in Lincoln for awhile that kept them from winning and until those things changed, I didn’t really have an interest in going back,” Frost said. “All those things are in place now and I think the table is set for Nebraska to make a resurrection.”
ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis asked what those things were.
“Leadership on campus, leadership in the athletic department, unity of purpose, unity in the fan base,” Frost said.
