BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 64,702
- Reaction score
- 24,157
- Points
- 113
Per ESPN:
In this summer's expanded FIFA World Cup, the entire world got a taste of peak March Madness. And it loved what it saw. Lower seeds -- in this case, small or unproven countries like Cape Verde and Congo DR -- defined the early part of the tournament, pulling upsets (it's soccer, so draws count as upsets) and giving us a bracket we didn't quite expect. The heavyweights eventually took over, but despite the fact that this was the biggest and longest World Cup ever, the underdogs gave the tournament almost endless momentum. Something breathless was almost always happening. It was great.
Of course, being the biggest World Cup -- 48 teams in all, up from 32 in 2022 -- had its advantages: We had more underdogs, and therefore more had opportunities to make noise. Not all of them did, but there were few mega-blowouts. The underdogs came to play, as I was confident they would. And getting to watch the celebrations when Cape Verde qualified for the knockout rounds (where they would damn near beat Argentina) was one of the cooler sports moments of the decade.
Despite naysaying from a number of fans and journalists, and despite extremely apt judgments regarding why FIFA wanted to expand the World Cup -- an even larger money cannon, plus the votes president Gianni Infantino needs to remain in office -- I was extremely confident that expansion would pay off precisely because of the March Madness angle. Pure law of averages suggested we would get upsets and chaos in the early going. And the floor for soccer has risen enough that if you're, say, the 44th-best team in the world, the gap between you and the top teams isn't as vast as it once was. Congo DR, for instance, has half its roster (13 of 26 players) playing in major leagues in England, Spain or France.
The underdog buzz from the early weeks of this tournament was so strong that, when I would put on my college football hat and do a radio bit the moment after a huge result, I would inevitably get asked the same question: If the expanded World Cup is this awesome, what does that say about the expanded College Football Playoff that is being proposed?
www.espn.com
Go Gophers!!
In this summer's expanded FIFA World Cup, the entire world got a taste of peak March Madness. And it loved what it saw. Lower seeds -- in this case, small or unproven countries like Cape Verde and Congo DR -- defined the early part of the tournament, pulling upsets (it's soccer, so draws count as upsets) and giving us a bracket we didn't quite expect. The heavyweights eventually took over, but despite the fact that this was the biggest and longest World Cup ever, the underdogs gave the tournament almost endless momentum. Something breathless was almost always happening. It was great.
Of course, being the biggest World Cup -- 48 teams in all, up from 32 in 2022 -- had its advantages: We had more underdogs, and therefore more had opportunities to make noise. Not all of them did, but there were few mega-blowouts. The underdogs came to play, as I was confident they would. And getting to watch the celebrations when Cape Verde qualified for the knockout rounds (where they would damn near beat Argentina) was one of the cooler sports moments of the decade.
Despite naysaying from a number of fans and journalists, and despite extremely apt judgments regarding why FIFA wanted to expand the World Cup -- an even larger money cannon, plus the votes president Gianni Infantino needs to remain in office -- I was extremely confident that expansion would pay off precisely because of the March Madness angle. Pure law of averages suggested we would get upsets and chaos in the early going. And the floor for soccer has risen enough that if you're, say, the 44th-best team in the world, the gap between you and the top teams isn't as vast as it once was. Congo DR, for instance, has half its roster (13 of 26 players) playing in major leagues in England, Spain or France.
The underdog buzz from the early weeks of this tournament was so strong that, when I would put on my college football hat and do a radio bit the moment after a huge result, I would inevitably get asked the same question: If the expanded World Cup is this awesome, what does that say about the expanded College Football Playoff that is being proposed?
Hypothetical 2025 CFP with all conference champions
First round- 17 Arizona at 16 USC
- 24 Kennesaw State at 9 Alabama
- 21 Duke at 12 BYU
- 20 JMU at 13 Texas
- 22 Boise State at 11 Notre Dame
- 19 Tulane at 14 Vanderbilt
- 23 Western Michigan at 10 Miami
- 18 Michigan at 15 Utah
- USC/Arizona at 1 Indiana
- Alabama/KSU at 8 Oklahoma
- BYU/Duke at 5 Oregon
- Texas/JMU at 4 Texas Tech
- Notre Dame/Boise State at 11 Ole Miss
- Vandy/Tulane at 3 Georgia
- Miami/WMU at 7 Texas A&M
- Utah/Michigan at 2 Ohio State
What College Football Playoff expansion could learn from the 2026 World Cup
World Cup expansion had its critics, but access was a goal. That hasn't been the thing for the CFP.
Go Gophers!!
