MAC football teams want a seat at College Football Playoff table; it seems to be coming

Two teams better than one.

Four teams better than two.

A 12-team championship field offers a world of opportunities for Mid-American Conference football teams.

Last month, expanding the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12 went from an idea to an inevitability.

While the MAC's entry into the CFP field isn't written in stone, conference commissioner Jon A. Steinbrecher advocated for playoff expansion.

"I fully support the effort to expand the college football playoff to 12 teams," Steinbrecher said at MAC media day Tuesday at Ford Field. "A 12-team playoff will be better than four, it will be more inclusive, fair and bring in creased importance and relevancy to the regular season and conference championship games. Hopefully later this fall, we can come to some conclusions on when we can move forward on this exciting expansion of the playoffs."

MAC schools and other Group of Five schools are not looking at the expanded playoff as a handout but are solely focused on more opportunities for non-Power Five schools to compete for the national title.

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"It's just opportunity, you need to get a ticket to the dance to go. When (the MAC) has a team that fits all the criteria to have an opportunity to get in, it'd be great for that team, whichever team that is," Western Michigan coach Tim Lester said. "It's amazing when you look at it when you compare it to other sports, and like how many people get an opportunity to win a championship and in basketball when 64 teams had a chance, and the percentage chance of actually winning one and how football is so lopsided. I don't know what the final number will be, but I think at all it really does give more teams an opportunity to live out their dream."

Group of Five schools have been historically slighted for contention into the College Football Playoffs. In 2017, Central Florida was the only FBS team undefeated at the end of the regular season not to make the playoff. The Knights finished ranked sixth in the final Associated Press poll behind two-loss Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio State.

WMU faced the same dilemma in 2016, undefeated regular season and MAC championship, was passed over, getting a bid to the Cotton Bowl instead.

"Playoff committee looks at a lot of things and strength of schedule is one so if you play MAC teams, they're going to assume that you're not as good as if you're playing SEC teams," Eastern Michigan tight end Thomas Odukoya said.

"Just because the badge on my jersey says MAC and not Big Ten doesn't mean that I'm not gonna play as hard and it doesn't mean I'm not good enough. MAC as a conference and a lot of other Group of Five conferences are criminally underrated. Hopefully, a new playoff system will show that we can compete on the biggest stage with the biggest teams."

Since 2017, EMU boasts a 3-0 record against Big Ten schools, defeating Illinois, Purdue and Rutgers. In the pandemic-shortened season of 2020, MAC teams did not play nonconference games. Under lifted pandemic restrictions MAC schools are taking full advantage of adding Top-25 teams to their non-conference schedule. But those nonconference games return this year; EMU will play Wisconsin, WMU takes on Michigan and Central Michigan visits Missouri and LSU.

"It's really an honor to be able to play against those Power Five schools that college football fans really look up to,' CMU wide receiver Kalil Pimpleton said.

"I won't say they downplay the Group of Five, but they don't give us as much respect as the Power Five teams and for us to go out there and have the opportunity to compete against those guys and catch a W."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MAC football wants a seat at College Football Playoff table