The College Football Playoffs kick off this week with matchups between Alabama and Oklahoma on Friday, Dec. 19. Then, on Saturday, Miami takes on Texas A&M, and Tulane takes on Ole Miss. Then, to end the night, James Madison goes up against Oregon.  

Students at Norwalk High School have opinions about the CFP matchups, potential sleepers, and the CFP format.

The playoffs used to be only four teams based on performance, strength of schedule, conference titles, head to head results and common opponents, but last year that changed when they expanded to 12 teams to allow for small teams from the G5 conferences like the AAC, C-USA, MAC, MWC and SBC to get a spot if they win their respective conference title game. Also, it allows for more teams from bigger schools to be in too.      

“I like how the Power 4 teams don’t have an automatic bye anymore, but something that needs to change is to get the G5 schools like James Madison and Tulane, the 11th and 12th seeds, out because it’s a waste of a game,” said Blake Burbank, a freshman at Norwalk.

Burbank said he would like to see teams like Vanderbilt, Texas, and Notre Dame in the playoffs.

“It would make for better games,” he said. 

Senior Brayden Plourde, another student at NHS, said there are some positives to the new format 

“I like that it gives a chance for more teams to be in the playoffs,” Plourde said. “With the old selection, it was just the top four teams, but now it’s kind of a more bracket-type style where maybe you can see an underdog on top.”

Plourde said he expects Oklahoma to make a good run.

 “They’ve already beaten Alabama once in the regular season,” he said. “They can really contest things against Indiana and make a good run.”