Take It Easy, Folks: College Football Playoff Does Not Need to Expand to 8 Teams

College football is nothing if not constantly dissatisfied with the present. In some ways that's a good thing. However, college big wigs are already jumping the gun on the new postseason format. 

The first year of the College Football Playoff isn't even over. The actual four-team field won't be selected for another couple of weeks. Still, the drumbeat for an eight-team playoff has begun.

Last week, ACC commissioner John Swofford noted that, in terms of the number of participants, doubling the playoff field again would improve the postseason, via Shawn Krest of The Herald-Sun: 

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Speaking at Wednesday’s weekly Durham Sports Club meeting at the Croasdaile Country Club, Swofford said an eight-team playoff, 'in terms of the number of teams, would probably be ideal.'

'I don’t think all the controversy’s going to go away,' Swofford said of the new system. 'You have four teams that get a chance to play for the national championship, which is twice as many as before, but whoever’s fifth or sixth is not going to be happy. There will be some conferences that won’t have a team in the playoff.'

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Additionally, an ESPN.com coaches poll conducted by Brett McMurphy showed that 44 percent of coaches favor an eight-team playoff. The march has already started. 

Swofford went on to say that he believes the current format works, but slipping the expansion note in there is no accident. As Bryan Fischer of NFL.com tweets, there's probably no way the four-team playoff makes it through its 12-year television contract without modification. The fact that it's already a talking point suggests its shelf life has a limit:

The only real question is how it comes about and when. Does it happen when an SEC team is left out? When two teams from the same conference get in? That all remains to be seen. 

That said, the playoff doesn't need to expand right now. How can anyone accurately judge otherwise if the status quo is still in its infancy? There will always be upset fanbases who think they got robbed, but we're not to the point where we can determine if the selection committee got it "right"—or whether it can get it right next year, or the year after that or the year after that. 

We are an impatient people, but here's what we, the fans and media, lose in this conversation about the playoff's future: The ability to enjoy the moment. 

Remember when the end of the BCS was supposed to ruin major college football's regular season? It hasn't. Actually, there's a case to be made that this regular season has been the most entertaining one in years. 

The playoff by itself isn't responsible for that, though it has given the talking heads more to discuss. Rather, the lack of a truly great team has made this year as exciting as it is.

Every team, even (especially?) undefeated Florida State, is vulnerable. The last time there was a regular season this captivating was in 2007 when all hell broke loose. That was the year that the BCS shrugged, reached into a hat and pulled out LSU and Ohio State to play in its championship game. 

2014 hasn't quite reached that level of chaos, but it has been fun—so let's have fun with it. Not everything has to mean something more.

Will this playoff ignite more controversy than the BCS? Absolutely, it already has thanks in part to the unveiling of weekly rankings. The more teams that are capable of being included, or being left out, the more controversy there is going to be.

An eight-team playoff isn't going to fix that, even if it goes the route of automatic bids and conference champions. As Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated notes, there's not enough parity in college football for all conferences, and thus conference champions, to be equal:

Would an eight-team field ruin the regular season? Who knows, but imagine an 8-5 Wisconsin, Big Ten champs circa 2012, getting into that playoff. The riots, they would be epic.

There's always going to be a degree of subjectivity in college football's postseason. That doesn't mean fans have to embrace it, but accepting it is probably a good place to start. 

If underdogs take a sack of dynamite to playoff-bound teams in the next two weeks, the subjectivity is only going to increase. So, too, will the campaigning and complaining. Rest assured, the eight-team playoff conversation will gain momentum. 

To be clear, there will be a day when that conversation is more appropriate. In the meantime, let's take the season for what it is—a year of no great football teams—and see if this format works for a few years. Being constantly upset with what you don't have takes too much effort, after all. 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football.