Urban Meyer says there are not enough scholarships for an eight-team playoff. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Everybody loves the college-football playoff, but many fans don't think it went far enough — and feel the perfect tournament would include eight teams instead of four.

Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer says it can't happen, and he makes a strong case.

ESPN set television ratings records with the two semifinal college-football playoff games on New Year's Day, showing that the network's $7.3 billion investment is already paying off. With so much demand, it would seem like it would just be a matter of time before the playoff is expanded from three games to seven.

But Meyer emphatically disagrees.

Meyer was a guest on "The Dan Patrick Show" and was asked about expanding the playoff to eight teams.

"You can't do that," Meyer told Patrick. "You better give us 110 scholarships then ... when [it moved to] 85 scholarships there were 12 games. Now there's 15 and the last three they added aren't against smaller [schools]. They're heavyweight prizefights. You just can't do it."

In other words, Meyer's biggest concern is the health of the players and asking them to do too much over the course of a lengthened season. If the schools had more scholarships and bigger rosters, those same players could then get more rest during the season. But that is not happening with just 85 scholarships available to each team.

Meyer also made it clear that he wants coaches and players to be represented if there are any discussions about expanding the playoff, and that he would be outspoken to make sure that happens.

At this point, the Power Five conferences are leaving a lot of money on the table if they resist the move to an eight-team playoff. But Meyer's point is that making that switch is not so easy. At some point everybody needs to stop and think about the players, not just the bottom line.