As the college football world officially begins its first foray into the 12-team College Football Playoff format to determine the 2024 national champions, Charles Woodson and AJ Hawk are all-in.

“Yeah, I am, because I always feel like no matter how many teams you field, there are always going to be teams that are left out that feel like they should be there,” Hawk said on the podcast Wednesday “The Triple Option”. . “But if we use 12 players and it’s a win-or-go-home situation, you can prove that you are the best team.

“I think that’s always better than a group of people voting on who might be the best team. Like any time you can play for it, I’m all for it.”

Of course, it wasn’t always the case that a large number of teams could win on the field. And Woodson, for one, remembers the consternation that the previous systems caused.

Before the BCS: When the polls tipped the scales

27 years ago, a season before the computerized BCS system was set to take effect, Woodson’s Michigan Wolverines were 12-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation entering the World Championship Rose bowl against the Pac-10 champions Washington State. In the same year the Nebraska Cornhuskers were also undefeated and ranked second before the duel Peyton Manning and the third place Tennessee Volunteers in the Orange peel.

Both Michigan and Nebraska won their respective bowl games in convincing fashion, leaving the debate over which 13-0 team would become NCAA national champions to the national polls. Not surprisingly, both the AP and Coaches polls split their votes, with the AP picking the Wolverines and the Coaches picking the Cornhuskers.

For Woodson, who won the 1997 Heisman Trophy as a cornerback over Manning, the shared national titles did little to solve the problem. It’s that memory that makes the current College Football Playoff model so appealing, especially as it expands to 12 teams.

“I would say, yes, just because it makes it more inclusive,” Woodson said on “The Triple Option” podcast Wednesday. “Before you go back through the timeline, … we didn’t get a chance to play Nebraska, which was also undefeated. And I think a year later the BCS was introduced and then it started with the best (two) teams or the best four teams.”

Woodson on CFP: “Now we really find out”

The BCS, not without its own controversies, finally gave way to the four-team College Football Playoff invitational format in 2014. A decade later, the playoff expanded to 12 teams and could expand even further after the current contract expires in the 2025 season.

In the meantime, Woodson supports the CFP format, which allows teams to ultimately assert their championship on the field.

“Outside of those four teams, there was always a fifth team, a sixth team that said, ‘Hey, we’re good enough to win (it).’ … Now (the expanded CFP) allows some of the teams that would normally be outside that window to take advantage of their opportunity,” Woodson continued. “So maybe we’ll see a team Boise Statethat comes in the playoffs. And in years past, they might have had an undefeated season and said, “We’re one of the best teams.” Okay, … now we’re really going to find out. We’ll find out if the teams outside of this (Top 4) bubble show how real their programs fundamentally are.”