Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: The College Football Playoff may EXPAND TO 24 TEAMS | How this impacts Iowa

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

Big Ten football faces seismic changes as coaches push for a 24-team College Football Playoff and the elimination of conference championship games. Is the legendary exclusivity of college football evaporating? The Big 10 Squad debates whether expanding the playoff waters down the sport, how job security and coaching standards might shift, and if a January 25th national championship is simply too much. The crew breaks down Maryland Terrapins’ shocking 4.5 win total: can Mike Locksley’s squad exceed expectations, or is another disappointing season inevitable? Key talking points include playoff expansion, scheduling chaos, and the shifting stakes for Big Ten coaches and teams like Washington and Ohio State. With heated insights on tradition, competitive balance, and the future of college football, this episode takes on the sport’s most controversial debates. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, the college football coaches have spoken. They say a bigger playoff plus no conference championship game. We'll tell you what that means and why it may or may not happen. Plus, Maryland's win total. All that today on a lockdown Big Ten squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten squad. From USC to Ohio State, from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington, it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns,

and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten Squad. Welcome, and it is another edition of the Lockdown Big Ten Squad. I'm Jacob Goens filling in for Spencer McLaughlin, who said he had better things to do, and the host of Lockdown Hoosiers is what I do. Roman Tomashoff is the host of Lockdown Huskies.

Jay Stevens, the host of Lockdown Buck Guys, and Isaiah Hole, the host of Lockdown Wolverines. And we have a lot to get to today. Maryland's win total, it's not good, and somehow they might still go under that. We'll talk about that later in the show. Plus, the news that has swept the college football landscape as coaches have voted for a bigger college football.

Playoff, they have voted for no more conference championship games, and they want the season to end in mid-January. Roman, I will start with you, my friend, your thoughts on this group coming together, the American Football Coaches Association and making their voice be heard. I don't even know where to start here because there's just so much that goes into all this. The thing that stuck out to me because, you know, we're going through the Big Ten squad text thread and seeing all these things. The first thing that popped in my head was the coaches voted to expand the playoff.

Oh, man, like this sucks, but also this is the least surprising thing I think I've seen from all of this because, you know, if you're some average, like we're going to be talking about Mike Loxley a little bit later on, right? Where this is probably a bad example, but if you're Michael Oxley, and you're, you know, getting a five-star like Zion Ely every single year and you're eight and four, nine and three, whatever. And you're just consistently the number 22 team in the country and making the college football playoff every year.

Yeah, you've got job security for life, man. This is great. Where are you going to go? I think that that's probably a thing that sticks out to me the most about all this. I don't like it. I think it sucks. It's boring. And it just,

it waters down so much of something that I think we've seen with the 12th team playoff is already a little watered down. but at the same point, I can't sit here and act like I'm shocked by any of this. Well, you speak of job security, Roman, and I'm so sorry that you're singled out here. I mean, we have the defending back to back to back national championship representatives in this call today. You know what? This is really unnecessary because all four teams have played in a national championship in the last three years, too. So I appreciate that.

But there's something that sets us apart from you, Roman, and you in Washington. Well, Jay and Isaiah both. I mean, the expanded playoff, again, it's. something that has been talked about forever. And they are open, these coaches talked about, they are open to a 16 team playoff, but expansion was inevitable. And I like what Roman said is,

look, you are going to have a college football playoff where you make it as the, I don't know, the 18th team. That doesn't mean as much as it would be if it was only the 14, right? Jay, I mean, that's kind of where this is leading. And maybe the coaches have just come to realize that.

No, you're right. The one thing I like about only weird thing I like about them proposing 2014 team playoff is that that's the max number. They're not saying 24 and then potentially a number higher than that. It's the max there. 76. Yeah, exactly. I don't like 24 at all. I think that what we have the 12, you need to get more data before trying to expand it, but we know that money is ruling everything and has so much power right now. And so you're going to get more than 12 very soon. I only like the part that they say, yeah, this is the max number. I don't like the number, at least you put a cutoff point there. The one thing I do enjoy is getting rid of the conference championship games and then putting a cutoff period every single year in the calendar.

But when the season is going to end, the fact that this year is going to end January 25th, which is absurd. It's silly. But no one's really stopping anybody from expanding and pushing the season out. And so until somebody puts their foot down and says, this is it. It's where we're going to end it. People are going to continue to push it out. You could eventually, if this doesn't go into effect, you could eventually have a season where, the college football national championship game is Super Bowl week.

That would be stupid, but that's what we're getting closer to. But I'm glad the coaches are finally getting out there, speaking, putting their voice out there in a collective way. We've heard coaches in moments in interviews say, I want this or I want that. But as a collective group coming out here and saying, this is what we want, I like that. This American Football Coaches Association has over 11,000 members.

But the couple of names that you need to know, Brent Vettables from Oklahoma, Red Lashley from SMU, Joey McGuire from Texas Tech. So there are some heavy hitting names that are in this panel. And Isaiah, are you in the boat of these coaches have just finally realized this is going to happen? So we may as well get behind it. Or do you think they believe that expansion is what's best for college football? I think the other two really kind of hit the nail on the head. The only thing that they haven't hit is I understand you want to cap it at 24.

like I think you need to be a little bit more progressive if you're one of these coaches and think think bigger right like 24 this year 20 48 the next year uh you know 96 in three years 512 in uh you know 120 12 12 teams but I mean that's the way to go no I don't think that they think this is the I think this is the best thing for them right because of what Roman said and ultimately like I kind of feel like we just need to We need to go back to the 70s, man. We need to just like, you're going to have some coaches vote on a national champion. You're going to have some media people vote on a national champion. And that's it. Yeah. Too much. You've ruined it.

Because I don't even like the 12, let alone 24. I'm on record vehemently and adamantly about that. Because it used to mean something when you were in that top four. And I understand that Indiana wasn't in that, but they would have been in that this past year, right? Right. like it used to actually mean something and you'd actually like there was something about when you would go and you'd see like a team's practice facility and they have that college football playoff logo up there i mean no offense to them but like james madison has right right like it

doesn't mean anything anymore yeah and like the movie social network you know talking about Facebook, the idea of it being like this exclusive thing made it made it better in a way, right? Like MySpace was all over the place and Facebook, everyone was clamoring to get on Facebook because there was only a few schools that had it. And I was fortunate to be at Michigan at that time. And then eventually it became like, it's like a laughing stock of a social network now essentially, right? Like it's it's not like a cool thing to be a part of. And college football's kind of gone that way. It's MySpace. It's Facebook.

It's whatever the popular thing is that was ruined by expansion and greed. Well, I heard a perspective the other day. And it leads in, it kind of builds off what you just talked about, Isaiah, is the expectations now for so many teams, the bar has been lowered. If you add more teams to the playoff, then the bar is lowered. And what I think is going to have to happen, I don't like this, but I think it's what's going to happen is you now have to reset the standard for a Heger. coach because making a 24 team college football playoff for Maryland, the team we're going to talk

about at the end, yeah, that's a big deal. It's a big deal for them to make a 76 team college football playoff. But to make a 24 team playoff for Indiana now, Ohio State always, Michigan always, I think Washington could be in that conversation too, Roman, while you're here. That doesn't mean as much. You shouldn't, well, yeah, you shouldn't save your job at major college football programs just because you, quote, made the playoffs. And if there's 24, 48, whatever, like, yeah, it's just watered down and it doesn't mean as much. So maybe we have to change the expectation and the standard and what saves your job as a

head coach in college football. I think. I don't know. I mean, for Indiana or whatever. I, sorry, Jacob. I like this a lot because it's something to go back to what you're saying a couple of minutes ago where you're rubbing your national championships in my face. Thanks, thanks to all three of you for that.

I look at Washington in particular where in the four-team playoff era, they were the only team of the Pac-12 to make it multiple times. And they did that under multiple head coaches. And it's something we're looking towards the future and looking at Jedfish and looking at this program right now where, yeah, you know, if Jedfish wants to be in the college football playoff, it's not something where at Washington, especially, you know, considering that sort of history, you can skate by it being number 16, number 17, whatever. every single year. That's great. You want to be there and you want to consistently be part of that,

right? At the end of the day, that looks good. But that should not be the standard for programs that win or compete for national championships on a yearly basis. I agree. I want to add to that because here's the thing that I think people like that are controlling this aren't recognizing. In a couple of years, everyone's going to get bored. Yeah. Right. Like it's at some point, it's just making it in. Is it going to mean anything? And no one's going to care. And eventually people are going to not care too much because the top teams are always going to tend to beat the lower ranked team. So like that first week, eventually, like, people are just, they're going to tune into the one that's the closest seeded games. And otherwise everyone's going to be like, well, whatever, who cares?

No one usually cares about seeing the number one team versus the number 25 team as it is. Yeah. And they'll tune out for weeks at a time and then come back, like you said, at the, you know, the elite eight, the final four, the national championship. And one thing that builds off of this that we're going to talk about after the break, not only do they want a 24-team college football playoff, they want to eliminate conference title game, something I personally have talked about. And I know that Spencer McLaughlin, a host of Lockdown College football has talked about as well. He joins us in the second segment, Roman, you'll have more representation of teams that haven't won a national championship.

Spencer joins us in the second segment talking about no conference title games right after this on the Lockdown Big Ten squad. Today's episode of the Lockdown Big Ten Squad is brought to you by Ruggiat. The NHL playoffs are here where every shift matters, every moment is intense, and the pressure is at its highest. Me personally, I love the NHL playoffs. It's some of the best postseason action in all of sports, and it is just so fiery, it's so intense.

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That's R-U-G-I-E-T-com slash locked-on NHL. Yes, locked on NHL for 15% off. Ruggia, performance medicine for men. All right, welcome back into the Lockdown Big Ten Squad, and we are joined by Spencer McLaughlin, host of Lockdown College Football, host of another show on the Big Ten Network that we won't talk about. And Spencer, where are you joining us from?

A car obviously, but- What did that show ever do to any of you? I caught about half of that. He's kind of here. He's kind of here, kind of not. Oh, boy. Is that Mark Culkin on the other line? There we go.

Not good. Is the connection, Jakey? That's unfortunate. I think it's all right. We can limp through it. If it gets bad, I'll just boot you out of here. But your thoughts, my friend, I know how you feel about a 2014 playoff, but your thoughts on the American Football Coaches Association.

I have to look at it and read it. time because I can't remember it. Your thoughts on them trying to get rid of conference title games altogether? Makes all the sense in the world. And unfortunately, predating a 24 team expansion also makes it make some sense. But just as a general rule, you know, even now that we're at 12 teams, the conference title games don't make a lot of sense to me just because we're not even clear as a college football community how we treat them. Alabama's result was ignored. BYU's was not. What are we like what are we doing here? I think it should only be a benefit. And if you're not going to apply that consistently, then get rid of them. And that's the first gripe I have with them.

The second gripe is the timing with the playoff just doesn't make any sense. We're ending this season on January 25th, guys. There's nothing about that. It makes any sense. So wait. an entire week by playing conference championship games. No, I don't think that serves a 12-team playoff. It certainly wouldn't serve a 24-team playoff. It would be even worse in that scenario. But I don't think it serves a 12-team playoff. And I know they're big money-makers. But if you're going to expand the playoff, then that's where you can recoup your money for people that are super worried about that. Which is why I've seen a lot of people talk about week zero, just becoming the new week one. Then you eliminate conference championship games. And you just gain two.

weeks of the season, take that off the end of January and boom, you have an opportunity to end in the middle of January. And then one by one by instead of two. I think that's the other the other notion that that is on the table because the dull buy is part of the reason that we get into this sort of mess. And I do think because some schools have this set up pretty poorly, your buys should not be any earlier than week four or five. I think it's Northwestern has a buy. And I think it's, Northwestern has a in like week two or three and then they just play nine or ten straight games. That's like what is the point of that? What the hell are we doing here?

Yeah. Jay Stevens have locked on Buckeyes. Your thoughts on a possible elimination of the Big Ten championship game. I'm here for it. Big Ten specifically I am here for getting rid of it because it's kind of like the NFL. Because Ohio State lost in it last year. Is that why? We're not talking about that game.

If we eliminate it, it right now, Indiana will be the last Big Ten championship game winner. I think we do it right now. I think we just cut it off. Honestly, that sounds like fun. I can't push back. Spencer, stop. Jacob, I like you. I like you a lot, but not the outcome of that game. But I'm here for it. I've always been a fan of not playing the game. Yeah, it's good for money, and I've been there before. It's a great, it's a great, good atmosphere. But overall, you play nine conference games, and then you want to wait until one week after to play a championship, ship game and say, oh, well, you did enough to get here and maybe the team that was best at the end of the

regular season loses this game. Well, yeah, you play the games, but I put more stock of those nine regular season games than the outcome of that one. I know you have to earn your right to get there, but I just don't really care for the Big Ten title game. Overall, in college football, get rid of them. If everything was the same, if the Big Ten, the ACC, the SEC, if everybody had the same criteria to get there and had the same number of conference games, and if everything, conference was created equal. I may be cool keeping, keeping them, but they're not. You're clearly not having the same criteria for teams in a conference nor criteria to get in the conference championship game. So you have to get rid of them because they're not all created equal.

But Isaiah, the history we would lose of not having the Big Ten championship game, right? I mean, the purists in college football say that you have to play it. It's always been played. We can't get rid of it, right? Listen, it's had a long time. It has not always going all the way back to 20. 11. You know, it's, thank you. Thank you. Remember what happened before then. I'm glad you actually, that that was going to start with that, right? That's kind of the big thing is it hasn't really been around forever. And I, you know, I'm more accustomed to the Big 10 not having a conference championship game. I like the conference championship game. It's, it feels like a pleasure to be able to go to it and to partake in it when you're there, but it's kind of rendered meaningless, especially like how they should have

done the playoff essentially was to say we have however many power conferences, we're going to have that many teams in. And the winner of the championship game gets to play in said playoff. That only makes the most sense in the world. They didn't do that. So if they didn't do that, then, yeah, I think like go ahead and eliminate it. Just because otherwise, like, yeah, you see teams get harmed by, you know, losing that game. Like you mentioned BYU earlier. I mean, it's absurd. I was just looking through BYU earlier today, considering, you know,

we got a couple guys at Michigan from there now. And the fact that they went 12 and 2 last year, and I understand that one of those came in the bowl game, but like, and didn't make the playoff is just crazy. So, yeah, do away with the conference championship game because teams that shouldn't be penalized for playing an extra game. Roman of Lockdown Huskies, are you cool with getting rid of the championship game that Washington's never been in and maybe wouldn't be in if they got rid of it right now?

Oh, yeah. You know, especially speaking from the experience of a long time, Big Ten member, all two years that Washington has been in Scarfuss. You have the most experience to speak from right now. That's why I saved you for us. Hey, we brought in like 500 million us West Coast schools, Big Ten should be on their hands and knees. That's true.

Thanking their lucky stars. We decided to grace this league with our presence. I hate saying these words. I agree with Spencer. I think that this is. It's something that like I look at where, you know, just to even this out, like, the 2020-pack-12 championship game will always be one of my favorite memories of all time. Tremendous game that obviously elevates Washington.

the playoff and so on when it really mattered because there were only four teams. But I feel like there should be some kind of way around this with the dumb 24 team playoff. It just feels like we're going to wind up seeing at this point in time where it shouldn't, you know, it shouldn't matter long term. But when we're going to see 16 from this conference and six from the SEC, if you want to replace the conference championship game, see Big Ten and SEC teams against each other and just give us something like that instead.

I feel like that would be some kind of fun way to, you know, mitigate that, I should say. Yeah, I think so. And so many people have talked about like a four-team play-in from each conference, right? If the SEC and the Big Ten get four teams have some play-ins. Yeah, Jay is correct. Jay's got me on this. I'm the neutral, just presenter of information here, okay? I'm just spitting out things I've heard.

I'm not saying if I like it or dislike it. I appreciate that you did not directly steal my name because no one else could possibly be as neutral arbiter of college football. I was going to ask if he was taking the title of neutral arbiter of college football. No, because I'm not. He used very different language. Very different language. No, I'm not. Well, we've talked 2014 playoff.

We've talked conference championship game. How about we talk about a team that has no business in either one of those? Let's talk Maryland in a four and a half win total. Yes, that's legit. Four and a half. We talk about the turps right after this and why somebody might pick them to go over. All right, final segment on this edition of a locked on Big Ten Squad. We got five strong on this Thursday.

And we are two teams in. Spencer, is that a hand up? Yeah. Can I go first? Yeah, yeah. Your signal says you need to go first. Maryland, four and a half. We've started this trend.

God, it's so delayed. It's so terrible. Okay, we're three teams in to our over-under-win totals, thanks to our friends at Fandu. We started with Purdue, then Michigan State, and now we go to Maryland. Over under four and a half, Spencer, make it quick, because you may not last that long with your service. Well, I don't usually last that long in a lot of ways, so I'll just go four and a half. Yeah, that's fine. We're just now.

We're moving on for that. I saw a thumbs down and I heard something about four and a half. So I'm going to assume for Spencer, he went under four and a half. Here is the Maryland football schedule for those of you who don't have it printed out in handy right here in front of you. Hampton, the Pirates is who they start with. Then they go, yes, to Yukon in week two to the Maryland Terps. Then they host Virginia Tech with a new head coach, James Franklin. Then they host UCLA.

They go to Nebraska, to Ohio State. home for Rutgers by week, home for Illinois, at Purdue, home for Wisconsin, at USC, and home for Penn State. So Roman, I will toss this to you, my friend. Fanduil says four and a half over or under the win total for Maryland this season. I came into this very biased. And then I looked at the schedule again and I said, you know what? Give me the over.

I think they can win. This will be a hot take here to start. I think they can win against Hampton. I know. you can quote me on that feel free give me give me wins at hampton yukon rutgers perdu and wisconsin i think that's the five i see i was doing that i was like oh oh maybe they can go over and i think that a lot of this is going to come down to the fact that you do have a lot of talent to rush the passer with siddy stewart zahir bathism i'm curiously but zion

ely looks like as well and then you have a talented quarterback and malik washington as well is that going to be enough to get mike locksley to keep his job i know i was on the show last year saying he's got enough young talent, give him one more year. Let's see what's going to look like. I can't say a lot of faith in him. Can't say I have a lot of faith in these things working out, but he does have the talent to at least let it play out for the season. 37 and 49 is the record of Mike Locksley in his time at Maryland. Jay Stevens of locked on buck guys, even if he does go over and get five wins, is that enough to save his job? And then your answer on over or under four and a half wins. No, it shouldn't be enough to save his job.

I was saying get rid of him last year. So I'm still on the not a big fan. I'm not the biggest fan of Mike Loxley, the head coach. If he was an offensive coordinator, I'd be more for that move for his career at this point in time. But I'm also going with the under. With those five games you mentioned, Roman, I have Rutgers in Wisconsin as toss-ups,

and I can only see them winning one of the two. And so I still had them going under. Roman made a good point a year ago because we had maybe a little short back and forth about me being off Mike Loxley, him being a big fans and keep him in talking about the past rushers and the recruiting that they've brought in. I don't care about the recruits if they don't produce on the field. So maybe it's a little bit harsh, but as I see it, they've had back-to-back four-win seasons.

I don't see a reason why the team should be five, have five, six, or seven because team morale is so low. And if it was like eight wins and then four, then up to seven, yeah, you have a little bit more belief. You've had down years the past two years. The team already doesn't trust what's happening right now. Yeah, breaking in fresh blood is great, but they're inexperienced. And that means something, especially on the road into Big Ten. I'm going under, I don't want to say Mike Loxie will be the first coach gone this year in the Big Ten, but I believe he'll be one of the coaches let go in the middle of the season.

If I was a better host, I would have Jay go last because of the four of us here, Ohio State is the only one that Maryland plays. They don't play IU, they don't play Washington, and they don't play Michigan, but it is what it is. Isaiah, your thoughts on Maryland. I'm not going to ask you to go super in depth and tell me your whole opinion on the too deep of that team. But over under four and a half wins of Maryland in 2026 again, they've got Virginia Tech, UCLA, road trips to Columbus, road tripped out to Los Angeles to take on USC. And they have to host Illinois and Penn State and Wisconsin. I'm actually going to go over for a couple of reasons here. Number one, I understand they've had the back to back four wins. seasons but i mean even under locksley outside of the last two years you and actually i think even two years ago maybe my memory might be failing me here they always tend to start really hot right like and that's even before locksley like you you'd be like oh man maryland just beat texas and then they would like lose out um but they are a lot more experienced right like i i put a lot of stock into

returning experience and maryland is a second in returning snaps I think they're about the same and Bill Connolly's returning production this year. That tends to mean something. And even if it's bad experience, it tends to mean something. And so, like, I look at it and I'm like, okay, I don't know that like Virginia Tech is necessarily like a team that is going to be able to beat the Terps, right? UCLA coming to Maryland. Like I feel like they could start out the season four and O. And then they just have to get that other that Purdue or that Wisconsin like you mentioned.

And it wouldn't surprise me if they managed to snag a game that they're not supposed to. Because that's historically under even Locksley. That's kind of what they've been able to do. They haven't really been able to get a Michigan or Ohio state. But like they've been able to get a team here and there over the course of the last decade-ish that they weren't supposed to. So I think they're going to kind of revert to that, just kind of given their experience. I like it. I like it.

I think it's very possible. Look, there are winnable games on this schedule, but then I remind myself it's Maryland. and I'm like, okay, maybe maybe not so much. I'm going under. I think they have another four win season. That's about as far as I can talk myself into as four wins. But look, they have a chance to not necessarily play home record, I guess, but they have some bigger games on there where they could be a spoiler, if you will.

And so that is the Maryland win total. That is the 24 team college football playoff conversation, no more title games. If those things come to fruition, great conversation on today's episode of this lockdown on Big Ten Squad for Roman Thomasoff of Lockdown Huskies. Jay Stevens of Lockdown, Buckeyes, Isaiah, a whole, Lockdown Wolverines. Spencer was here and somewhere, but he doesn't get credit for that appearance.

He doesn't get credit for that. I'm Jacob Gones, the host of Lockdown Hoosiers. We are back next week to do it all again. So until then, stay safe. And we'll talk to you later.