​They’ve heard the voices raging, raging against the dying of the light. A cacophony of criticism that can’t be ignored.Until it is. Until the College Football Playoff committee says we’ve heard your cries of expansion hate, and we’re going to 24, like it or not. But here’s the thing: You hate it now, but will you hate it later?“Ultimately,” says CFP executive director Rich Clark, “We just need to make a spectacular playoff.” College football’s playoff wreckers: 5 teams that could blow up the CFP raceThat’s the gamble, everyone. That’s the only move left for a CFP that three years ago went from a wondrous and controversial four-team postseason — there’s nothing wrong with controversy, people — to tripling in size, and using a 12-team format for one season before trying to get fatter, faster.From four, to 12 to 24 in four years. A brilliant man once said in 2013, prior to the advent of the four-team playoff a year later: “Bracket creep is inevitable.”That was former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, who worked with former SEC commissioner Mike Slive to come up with the four-team deal, and it was gloriously popular. Yes, even controversial. Which fit perfectly with the DNA of the sport. College football is the sport of arguing. My coach, my school is better than yours. My conference, stadium and band is better than yours. And you can’t prove it isn’t. That unique formula has driven the sport into the media rights passing lane, right by every major professional sport not named the NFL. College football isn’t the second most popular sport in America because of the oblong pigskin. It’s because of decades upon decades of loyal, unwavering fans and their desire to consume more and more of their school and their sport. Do you really think a 24-team CFP is going to wipe away all that? Do you think the knowledge a 24-team format is strictly a money grab and nothing else, will suddenly make Joe Sixpack ignore the game that fueled his fall Saturdays for decade upon decades? Of course it won’t. College Football Playoff Predictor: Georgia looks downright unbeatableVols snub: CFP committee ignores reality to keep Alabama ahead of TennesseeLook, the 24-team format is a terrible idea. The reality that we’ll be forced to choke down four-loss Kansas State against four-loss Minnesota in a playoff game makes me violently ill. That’s not a playoff game, it’s a bowl game that — and here’s the key — will still outdraw anything this side of the NFL. But it’s football, and when you slap a CFP patch on the uniforms, it’s a real, live important game. That’s what the presidents and chancellors of the Big Ten and SEC are banking on. This is their beast of burden, their hope against hope. It is here where I would typically say hope isn’t a plan. But we’ve seen college football explode in the live sports television era, and watched in awe as it navigated a pandemic — even though some had to be dra