Oregon football would be playoff mainstay in 12-team expansion

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the new playoff expansion proposal from the management committee and if you haven’t, what have you been doing for the past 24 hours?

Basically, the expansion proposition states that the College Football Playoff would be 12 teams with the top four seeds being the top four ranked conference champions and they’d each get a first-round bye. And then the higher seed would host the lower-seeded opponent in round one (No. 5 seed would host No. 12, for example).

The six highest-ranked conference champions would be in as well as the six other teams ranked highest by the playoff committee.

This proposal should excite Oregon football fans for one obvious reason: the Ducks could actually be a playoff mainstay in this proposed 12-team field.

Oregon football would have already been a playoff mainstay

Before you laugh or call me crazy, just look at how the Ducks have finished over the past decade-plus in the final rankings.

• 2008: 10
• 2009: 11
• 2010: 3
• 2011: 4
• 2012: 2
• 2013: 9
• 2014: 2
• 2019: 5

If the 12-team playoff had been around for the past 13, or so, years, Oregon would have made it a about eight times. While they haven’t finished ranked high consistently over the past five years, they got as high as No. 9 in 2020 and No. 12 in 2018. The Ducks would have been in the conversation, at the very least.

Fresh off two consecutive Pac-12 regular-season titles and after bringing in the top recruiting class in the Pac-12, Oregon looks like the favorite to represent the conference in the playoff in 2021.

The proposition wouldn’t go into place (if passed) until 2023 so the Ducks will have to push for a spot in the four-team field in 2021 and 2022. They could definitely do that with the talent that’s on the roster heading into the season.

If this gets passed, Oregon should be a playoff regular.