The College Football Playoff’s recent decision to expand from 12 to 24 teams next season has drawn plenty of criticism. Despite worries that an expanded playoff picture could lower stakes for the regular season, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch is in favor of a broadened playoff field.
“I’ve been very adamant, I think it’s fantastic,” Fisch said at Monday’s press conference. “I think [with] the way college football is going right now, it’s needed. You need to be able to have these opportunities to continue playing.”
With the game more competitive, Jedd Fisch thinks an expanded playoff makes sense
Fisch’s Huskies, who currently hold a 5-4 record which includes four Big Ten losses, aren’t in contention for the 12-team playoff. They wouldn’t even be contenders for the 24-team playoffs to come. But with the number of other teams struggling this year, Fisch believes an expanded playoff allows elite teams room for midseason error and gives other teams a greater opportunity.
“There is an exceptional amount of teams that are 5-4 right now, all over the place,” Fisch said. “The Big Ten is constantly beating each other. There’s nothing that is predictable.”
As Fisch then referenced to reporters, the home team has won just 46% of Big Ten games this year. That figure marks a 12% drop from two seasons ago. Through seven weeks of conference play, only two Big Ten teams (undefeated No. 4 UCLA and one-loss No. 6 Indiana) have less than two losses.
“I think when you see those things, you need to be able to have more playoff games,” Fisch said. You need to have more teams being able to compete. You need to be able to be more like the NFL.”
Fisch, whose near-30-year coaching career includes tenures at seven NFL programs, is already known for his professionally-minded coaching style. His team motto is ‘Be a pro,’ and he reserves the final six days of training camp for ‘NFL Week,’ in which the team votes on an NFL team schedule to mimic.
The Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald (2025) and the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton (2026) both sent in copies of their schedule, and Fisch has also previously reused his New England Patriots playbook in hopes of better preparing his players for a professional future.
Now, Fisch hopes an expanded playoff can provide something more similar to the NFL system, in which 14 of 32 teams compete for a chance at the Super Bowl. Not everyone welcomes the change, but with 23 playoff spots open for 68 teams from Power Four conferences in 2027-28, college football’s ratio of playoff teams to bystanders will soon be more comparable to the NFL’s.
In an expanded playoff world, Jedd Fisch prefers spring game tradition to conference titles
Many people’s biggest concern regarding an expanded playoff is the lack of stakes behind stunning regular-season upsets. Before the move from four to 12 playoff teams in 2024, a regular-season loss was disastrous for even a 10-win Alabama team. There was still little room for error with 12 playoff spots up for grabs, but fans are now set to see the amount of playoff bids increase sixfold in the span of just five seasons.
And an expanded playoff won’t be the only change Husky fans feel in 2027. The season will begin a week earlier, the Big Ten will begin requiring its teams to schedule a 10th Power Four opponent (or Notre Dame), and most significantly, Power Four conference championship games will be discontinued.
Fans like me are sad to see the end of conference title games, but Fisch is more worried about how the season’s earlier start date will affect a different tradition.
“I’m still trying to figure out how we’re going to have a spring game, because I don’t want to lose that,” Fisch said, referencing the Huskies’ 21-practice offseason schedule. “We can’t take everything away from college football. I understand, conference championships, we’re going to take away in order for us to be able to have a great playoff run, and that’s awesome because you can only play X amount of games, but I still hope we hold onto certain things that still matter.”
Fisch has previously defended the importance of the spring game, an annual scrimmage in which fans can watch the Huskies play against each other, as an excellent opportunity for competition, especially for players unlikely to see much action come fall. And with Washington’s spring game tradition dating back to 1961, Fisch is determined to keep the custom alive.
“I think the conference championship came in late in the game anyway,” Fisch said. “That’s not one of those traditions, so I’ll take the 24-team playoff and go try and compete to be in that, and give up the conference championship as long as we can still have a spring game.”
Remembering Washington’s rich conference title history
Fisch is ready to move on from conference championships, but that shouldn’t happen without a look back at Washington’s many years of title-winning success.
From 1915-2023, the Huskies claimed 18 conference titles along the West Coast. Only USC (37) claims more championships. And following the creation of the Pac-12 Championship Game in 2011, the Huskies continued to acquire conference hardware.
Across 13 years of Pac-12 title games, Washington took home three conference championships (2016, 2018, 2023). That figure ties the Huskies with Stanford for the second-most in conference history behind only Oregon (4).
The Huskies also own perhaps the most important single conference title victory: a 34-31 victory over No. 5 Oregon in 2023. The victory made No. 3 Washington the conference’s final title-winners and earned the Dawgs a berth in the final edition of the four-team College Football Playoff.
Washington BEATS Oregon to win the final Pac-12 Championship and likely punch a ticket to the College Football Playoff🏆https://t.co/pBoV6VDNIr pic.twitter.com/WYdxInS5ZB
— On3 (@On3) December 2, 2023
Despite all their success in the Pac-12, the Huskies will never win a Big Ten Championship. Is it worth missing out on that opportunity to get better odds at a playoff appearance? I have my doubts, but as long as the spring game tradition remains, Fisch thinks so.
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