The expanded playoff produced better games and a scheduling problem it cannot solve

The expanded playoff did what expansion is supposed to do. Average margin of victory across the bracket fell from 17.4 points to 11.2, three games were decided on the final possession, and the first round drew the largest audience the round has ever had.

It also created a calendar that nobody has found a way to fix.

The January problem

The championship now falls 22 days after the final regular season game. For the teams that reach it, that means two additional games in a season already compressed by a conference championship week, and 17 games played by athletes who are also students in a term that has begun.

Coaches at four programs described the same practical difficulty: the team practices through final examinations, travels during the first week of the new term, and returns to a campus where classes have been running for a fortnight.

We ask them to be students and then we build a calendar that makes it structurally impossible for three weeks a year.— A head coach whose team reached the semifinal

Ideas that do not work

Three fixes are regularly proposed and each fails on inspection. Starting the season a week earlier collides with camp rules and with heat in the south. Removing conference championship games removes revenue that funds non-revenue sports. Shortening the regular season removes a home game, which for most athletic departments is the largest single revenue line they control.

The remaining option is to compress the bracket by removing bye weeks, which coaches oppose on injury grounds and medical staff oppose more strongly.

• Average margin: 11.2 points in the expanded field, down from 17.4
• Championship date: 22 days after the last regular season game
• Games played by finalists: 17, up from 15
• Proposed fixes rejected: earlier start, no conference title games, shorter season

A working group has been asked to report before the next cycle. Its most likely recommendation, according to two people involved, is to move the first round a week earlier and accept a shorter gap before it — which improves the January problem and worsens the examination one.