11/09/2026 10:59:00
Printable Page
11/09 10:58 CST College Football Playoff doubles up, expands to 24 teams
beginning next season
College Football Playoff doubles up, expands to 24 teams beginning next season
By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
The College Football Playoff will double in size to 24 teams beginning next
year, bringing an end to a three-decade era of conference title games that used
to be among the marquee events of the season.
College leaders announced the new format Monday, after ESPN agreed to rework
its contract to add the 11 new games. Terms were not announced, though ESPN
said it was a deal for five years and additional $1.7 billion, on top of the
$7.8 billion contract that runs through the 2031 season.
The revenue generated from the new games will presumably make up for the
estimated $345 million the Power Four conference title games were worth. ESPN
would then not be on the hook for $140 million of the extra money due to
cancellation of the title games, the network reported.
The new format will have five automatic qualifiers --- the champions of the
Power Four league s and the best-ranked team in the smaller Group of Six
conferences --- with the other 19 teams being chosen by a selection panel.
Notre Dame does not receive any guarantees, the way it does this year if it's
ranked in the top 12 for what will be the last year of the 12-team postseason.
The top eight seeds will receive first-round byes in the new format and the
playoff will start on the second weekend in December, with the first two rounds
of games on campus. The traditional Army-Navy game will be played on the first
weekend in December, which used to be reserved for conference title games.
Both the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences, whose approval was needed to
adopt this change, and their Power Four brethren --- the Big 12 and Atlantic
Coast Conference --- are banking that most of the additional spots will go to
their members so some of the second-tier teams have new motivation to keep
spending big in an era of NIL and $50 million football rosters.
"Opening the playoff to more programs, more student-athletes and more fan bases
across the country is great for college football," said Mississippi State
president Mark Keenum, who is chair of the CFP board. "We look forward to
seeing this expanded format come to life next season."
The first final for the 24-team playoff remains set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New
Orleans. Traditional bowl games will still host the quarterfinal and semifinal
rounds.
As part of the expansion, the CFP is requiring Power Four teams to play at
least 10 "qualifying" regular-season games against conference foes, other Power
Four opponents and Notre Dame. Group of Six teams will have to play 10 games
against conference opponents and a mix of G6 teams, Notre Dame and other
independents.
The agreement guarantees two off weeks during a regular season that will begin
the week before Labor Day.
An NFL-sized playoff changes the nature of the college regular season
The move to 24 teams marks the second expansion of the playoff since it began
in 2014 as a modest four-team affair. Right after it moved to 12 in 2024, most
thought it would eventually max out at 16, which was the SEC's preference.
But the Big Ten wanted to go bigger, while the SEC balked at that, concerned
about the league title game --- a property it invented in 1992 and made
billions from over the decades --- along with the marketability of games
featuring third- and fourth-place finishers in power conferences.
ESPN took care of the money problem. Now, the question is whether fans will
embrace an NFL-style free-for-all that could include about one-third of the
Power Four's 68 teams, depending on what happens with the Group of Si schools,
whose role in these big-money power grabs seems to diminish with every move.
It's the latest seismic change for a sport that, for decades, built its
distinct character and generated controversy by leaning on media and coaching
polls to hand out national titles.
The new system won't be a completely clean break. Critics see a risk in giving
more power to a selection committee that hasn't really mastered the four- or
12-team brackets. The exclusion of Florida State in 2003 and Notre Dame last
season stand out as the best examples -- and the first rankings release of this
season left people scratching their heads again.
Skeptics also view the expanded playoff as another watering-down of what's
largely seen as one of the most important regular seasons in sports, replacing
potential matchups between, say, Alabama and Georgia in an SEC title game with
a 13 seed vs. 20 seed game that would pit, say, Kentucky and South Carolina.
But, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti argued from the beginning, a
postseason that gives bubble teams hope and keeps others vying for home-field
advantage or byes will bring more eyes --- not fewer --- to the end of a
regular season that sometimes boils down to only three or four traditional
rivalry games with meaning. (One of those traditional games, Ohio
State-Michigan, is shaping up to have zero impact on this year's playoffs this
year.)
More at-large berths also help the conferences cash in on the decision to
expand their league schedules (the SEC didn't really want to) and demand more
non-league games be played among Power Four teams --- all in an effort to beef
up strength-of-schedule ratings that will carry weight with a selection
committee.
___
Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP's full
college football coverage here
|
