Utah football coach predicts major NCAA changes: tiered system and expanded playoffs
Utah football head man Kyle Whittingham is certainly an expert on the changing climate of college sports these days. After all, the Utes are in the Big 12 this year not because they were desperate to find a new conference, but because the Pac-12 imploded.
The Utes head coach recently talked about several other changes he sees coming to the sport in the very near future. Considering that he’s been forced into a conference he doesn’t love, it’s not a surprise that Whittingham’s predictions are not exactly positive. Even if his squad is starting off in the AP Top 25, he’s not thrilled about where things are headed in general.
Whittingham recently spoke to John Canzano and at the top of the list of topics was that the Utah football coach thinks the NCAA is eventually going to have a couple of tiers. And he thinks this shift is coming rather soon.
Utah football coach thinks NCAA is about to make some major shifts
“I think there is a major realignment coming, and it'll be a big one, and I think it'll create even more of a divide and an exclusivity for the teams that are on the right side of that line,” Whittingham said. “20 months to four years, how about that, for a time frame?”
Whittingham also believes that the playoffs aren’t going to stay at 12 teams for very long at all. That’s hardly a surprise, but he believes the NCAA will expand in the very near future.
“I just see an expansion of the playoffs with that to 16 teams, and the short version is super conferences.”
“I think it's going to be boiled down to 40 to 60 maybe teams in the super conference and wouldn't be surprised if they don't play anybody but other super conference teams. That makes it difficult. The vision as far as who you play and, like I said, a full-blown playoff and whether or not the players will be employees officially remains to be seen, but I think that's very likely, and I think that's where it's headed.”
In other words, the Utah football head coach sees some very bad things happening to the sport in the very near future.