Eli Drinkwitz walked into SEC Media Days with numbers on his mind and fire in his voice. He was campaigning for a College Football Playoff model that includes 30 teams! But before the pitchforks came out, note that the Missouri HC isn’t asking for March Madness on the turf. His vision isn’t a chaotic 30-team bracket, but a structured format where auto-bids and play-ins funnel into a 16-team postseason. So when a media outlet tried to reduce his model into a meme-friendly headline, he didn’t remain silent. 

Unnecessary Roughness made a post on X about Eli Drinkwitz’s 30-team playoff proposal, citing his original quotes — “Now you’re talking about an opportunity for 30 teams, 30 fanbases to be excited and engaged… You’ve got 30 teams with players who have access to compete for a championship.” Then it added their own piece of jab saying, “Mizzou players were asked about this and shared they don’t want to be playing in March.” Embarassing? Absolutely.

But in a new X post on July 17, the Mizzou HC made his stance clear while throwing shade at the blunt evaluation. “That’s not what was proposed- or how it was presented.  Maybe evaluate the idea before just assuming & making an aggregate headline!” he tweeted. The main message here is don’t oversimplify the playoff math just to farm clicks.

So what exactly did Eli Drinkwitz have in mind? “On championship Saturday- each conference have play in games to the 16 team playoff- instead of having a selection committee… that’s the idea- that happens [in] Dec…” he added. Now let’s break it down: During his interview with On3’s JD PicKell, he made a clear stance. “44% of the teams in the NFL make the playoffs,” he said. “We’re talking about 10% of college football teams are gonna make the playoffs, and we think that’s going to keep fanbases encouraged?” He’s got a point. College football has always been more exclusive than inclusive. Under the 12-team CFP model, you’re essentially putting a velvet rope around the playoff dancefloor. And for programs like Missouri, that rope might as well be barbed wire.

What Eli Drinkwitz is proposing is not a 30-team playoff bracket. It’s a structure with play-in games inside each conference, functioning like mini-tournaments on Championship Saturday. In total, 30 teams would be involved at that point. And the winners of those play-ins punch their ticket to a 16-team actual CFP field. The math looks something like this:

• SEC and Big Ten – 4 play-in games (8 teams each)
• ACC and Big 12 – 3 play-in games (6 teams each)
• That’s 28 teams.
• Add a Group of Five champion and Notre Dame, and that’s 30. 

Sounds cleaner when you lay it out that way. But critics argue it’s the Big Ten’s 4+ model dresses in SEC colors. And it’s even less favorable to the Group of Five schools. 

Eli Drinkwitz is building a pitch for the underdogs?

Eli Drinkwitz isn’t optimistic about the current playoff format. “It doesn’t make sense for the University of Missouri,” he told ESPN. “It makes sense for blue bloods who are consistently ranked in the Top 25 and every year have the implicit bias of being ranked – maybe not based off product, but based off media marketing and branding.”

He’s not wrong there, either. The CFP committee isn’t shy about chasing logos over resumes. But his logic cuts both ways. This proposal may open the door for more Power 4 teams, but it slams it shut for the 60+ teams outside that club. 

Under this setup, 42% of Power 4 teams would get a shot at glory. Meanwhile, just one of the other 68 FBS schools would get the same opportunity. Still, Eli Drinkwitz insists this model is about inclusion with more chances, more dreams. “In my viewpoint of it, I think we should go back and try to find more ways to include teams,” he said. “How do we get more people involved? Because that’s better for the players. That’s better for the player experience to have more people involved in the potential to play for a championship. And it’s better for the fanbases.”

At the end of the day, it’s vintage Eli Drinkwitz. Opinionated, polarizing, and somehow both self-serving and earnest. Whether you love his model or hate it, at least he’s thinking like a fan.