As the NCAA football championship game approaches Monday night in Dallas, both the excitement level and the controversies are on the rise.

On New Year’s Day, Oregon and Ohio State earned the right to play for the title by winning their respective bowl games. Ohio State upset top-seeded Alabama 42-35 in the Sugar Bowl, and Oregon defeated Florida State and their controversial quarterback, Jameis Winston, 59-20 in the Rose Bowl.

Just this year, a new playoff system was put in place and it is a badly needed improvement. The final four teams were selected by a committee of 13 people comprising former college head coaches, athletic directors and players, as well as other so-called experts who were supposed to watch all of the top teams play.

Once the season concluded, Alabama was selected the top team, followed by Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State.

In past seasons under the Bowl Championship Series, the two teams that played in the championship game were chosen based on different polls in which teams were ranked by coaches, computers and members of the media. This was wrong for several reasons, including the fact that many coaches and media members voting in the polls admitted to not watching many of the teams play.  This made it very unfair to the teams who were actually deserving of playing in the championship game.

If the BCS existed this year, Florida State, which finished the regular season undefeated, and Alabama, which went 12-1 and won the toughest conference in the SEC, would have most likely played for the title.

Obviously, neither of these teams were good enough on New Year’s Day to win their semifinal matchups.

Although the new four-team playoff is one step closer to a fair playoff system because it includes the four highest ranked teams, there was still controversy surrounding the four teams named to the semifinals. The biggest complaint came from TCU, Baylor and their fans.

Most conferences, but not all, have a conference championship game. This is an extended 13th game that the top two teams in the conference play to finish the regular season. The problem with this is that the winning team now has an extra win. The conferences that don’t have a championship game don’t have the opportunity to get that extra win. This gives conferences with a championship game an advantage.

TCU and Baylor finished fifth and sixth with 11-1 records.  If either of them had a chance to play in a championship game to gain that extra win.  If their conference, the Big 12, had a title game, their rankings could’ve gone up and helped them be named to the final four, especially considering how TCU was knocked out of the final four by Ohio State after the Buckeyes destroyed Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten title game.

This is why I think the number of teams in the playoffs should be doubled to eight. It gives more teams a chance to use their skills on the field to make it to the championship game instead of being eliminated because of the voters’ opinions.

Similar to football, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has been changing its playoff system over the years to include more teams. It started with the top eight teams, then in 2001 it grew to the top 65 teams, and then grew again to 68 in 2011. Now the whole month of March is dedicated to the college basketball tournament known as March Madness.

The same controversies were occurring. The committee that voted for who makes the playoffs had way different opinions than the fans and players.

I don’t think expanding the college football playoffs to 68 teams is the answer, but it should be expanded to eight to make it as fair as possible.