Three-Point Stance: Expand the playoff, Lane Kiffin, LB commits

Today's edition discusses expanding the college football playoff, the opening at Oregon and some huge recent linebacker commitments.

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College football needs an eight-team playoff and it needs to be done fast. Yes, I understand expanding the playoff would come with some scheduling issues but I don’t care.

College football is all about money. The people in charge don’t care about the players - otherwise that whole pay-for-play thing would have been addressed by now - and the fans want a bigger playoff bracket.

I’ve heard many defending the current four-team system because it makes games in November mean more. That’s crap. Rivalry games and conference games in college football will always matter no matter how much the sport's postseason field is expanded. There are 68 basketball teams that make the NCAA Tournament each season, but that hasn't taken away from the intensity of the Duke-North Carolina rivalry.

Answer me this: If there was a two-loss SEC champion in any of the last three seasons, would they be left out like Penn State was? No way. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee is lucky that Alabama ran the table and didn’t stumble a couple of times because the SEC stunk this season. Yet Penn State and Michigan, which played in a much better conference this season, got snubbed while Ohio State gets rewarded by not playing for the Big Ten title? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Take the five Power Five champions and put them in automatically, then add three wildcard teams and you have a perfect playoff system.

One of the arguments against expanding the College Football Playoff is that inevitably eight teams will turn into 16 and 16 will turn into 32 and so on. Not in college football it won’t. Eight is as far as it can stretch, and it fits very comfortably.

This season, under that eight-team scenario, you would have Alabama, Clemson, Washington, Penn State and Oklahoma in the field as conference champions and Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin as the at-large teams. The matchups would be awesome with potential rematches between teams like Oklahoma and Ohio State, Ohio State and Michigan or Penn State and Wisconsin. Tell me that’s not more exciting with a potential Alabama and Ohio State showdown in the semifinals or a rematch of Clemson and Oklahoma on the other side.

For those of us who never thought we’d see a college football playoff in our lifetimes, I’m happy that we have one. But I’m not happy when a conference champ gets snubbed in favor of a team it beat straight-up or when an Oklahoma team gets punished for scheduling two tough teams early in the season.

I get it, trust me. If Penn State beats Pitt or if Michigan beats Iowa or if Oklahoma beats Ohio State then maybe we’d be looking at a different picture, but why limit ourselves? If the SEC would have a team in no matter what - probably even a three-loss team - then open things up.

I’m a big fan of P.J. Fleck. I've advocated recently that he should replace Brian Kelly at Notre Dame immediately. Larry Fedora, Scott Frost, Willie Taggart, Bryan Harsin, Dan Mullen and Dana Holgorsen are all fine coaches as well. But the Oregon Ducks brass should make call one person and one person only their new head coaching hire: Lane Kiffin.

Despite all the cool uniform combinations and high-tech toys and great facilities, Oregon has been a very conservative program when it comes to hiring head coaches. Yes, Chip Kelly was a bit of a risk as a guy with zero ties to the West Coast, but he was an internal hire much like jettisoned head coach Mark Helfrich. The last time the Ducks hired from outside the family was in 1977. It’s time for a big change and a big risk as Oregon has fallen from one of the hottest programs in the country to the second-tier of its own division. The uniform combinations have all been copied, the high octane offense is everywhere now and the facilities are amazing, but the same can be said about 40 other national programs.

What Oregon needs is a guy like Kiffin who will make the Ducks hot again. Yes, Kiffin failed in the NFL. Yes, he bolted on Tennessee when he shouldn’t have. Yes, he failed at USC. But his work as the offensive coordinator at Alabama has been nothing short of spectacular, he can recruit as well as anyone and he’ll be as recognizable a name as you can hire this time around. And, as a bonus, can you imagine the attention Kiffin will bring to Oregon with his Jim Harbaugh-like antics? The Ducks need a shot in the arm and he’s currently two games away from leading an offense to another national title.

In the meantime, it is likely that Kiffin gets the Houston job instead. Time will tell if Oregon makes a better choice. But if it were up to me, I’d pick up the phone and call Kiffin. And I know Oregon won’t have the guts to do it.

Two big linebacker commitments have gone down recently, led by five-star linebacker Baron Browning to Ohio State. Just a few days prior to his expected announcement early last week, rumors were swirling that Browning was an Alabama lock. Why would anyone doubt the prowess of Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide machine? But once again Urban Meyer showed why he’s the best recruiter in the industry as he held off Alabama and lured the Texas star up north.

With Browning, think Raekwon McMillan but longer and slightly more versatile. That’s a big deal.

The other big linebacker pledge was Anthony Hines to Texas A&M when some felt he might head the Big 12 or Pac-12. What Hines lacks in length and suddenness he makes up for in instincts, football IQ and physicality. The SEC is a perfect fit for him where he won’t be asked to cover in space as often, even with some offenses in the league throwing more and more. This fits Hines' aggressive style, as he does his best work when his first step is forward.

Linebackers don’t often get as much publicity as offensive stars or even defensive linemen, but these could be two major commits that will have a huge impact in a couple years.