A 24-Team Playoff Is Close, and College Football Is Furious

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Thursday that the College Football Playoff is nearing a deal to expand to 24 teams starting in 2027, and college football’s corner of social media reacted like somebody had cancelled Christmas. The 24-team playoff still needs final approvals, but a bracket that held four teams a few years ago is about to hold six times that many, and almost nobody outside a conference office sounds happy about it.

ESPN’s Kevin Clark summed up the mood in one post on X.

“Sacrificed the best regular season in sports so that 8-4 Big Ten teams can lose by 13,” Clark wrote. “Awesome stuff.”

The playoff’s own response was far less colorful. Its management committee met Thursday without voting on expansion or the ESPN television deal, On3 reported, and the CFP released a statement that read like it was written by a lawyer on his lunch break.

“We will provide additional updates on the matters of future format and media rights when appropriate,” the CFP said.

What the 24-Team Playoff Would Look Like

Here is the proposed bracket as reported by ESPN, On3 and Sports Illustrated, with the warning that the fine print can still move.

• Four Power Four conference champions, the highest-ranked Group of Six champion, and 19 at-large teams would make the field.
• Seeds 1 through 8 would get a bye and then host a second-round game.
• Seeds 9 through 16 would host seeds 17 through 24 on campus in the first round.
• Power Four conference championship games would disappear, and the season would start a week earlier.
• The New Year’s Six bowls keep the quarterfinals and semifinals, and ESPN would carry 23 playoff games in all, according to Yahoo Sports.

Ross Dellenger framed the same field as 23 at-large spots plus one Group of Six berth, while noting a separate guarantee of Power Four access. How the automatic bids are labeled remains unsettled. The Group of Six includes the relaunched Pac-12, so the seat saved for the little guys could get crowded fast. The playoff has a Dec. 1 deadline to lock in changes for 2027, per SI.

The Critics Came Out Swinging

The loudest argument is that the best regular season in American sports just had its teeth pulled. Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports did not bother with subtlety in his column.

“In reportedly moving to a 24-team playoff, college football has officially jumped the shark,” Jeyarajah wrote. Later in the column, he argued that donors investing tens of millions in mediocre rosters now want something to show for it.

Tegan Randolph of AtoZ Sports called it the final nail in the coffin for the regular season, and Barstool’s Ohio Tate posted that he would rather go back to two playoff teams than watch 24 get in. Paul Finebaum saw this train leaving the station back in July.

“I think ultimately it will go to 24,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s Get Up. “There’s just too much money at stake.” He was predicting it, not cheering it on. Finebaum also called a 24-team field a “complete and total disaster.”

The Commissioners Have Their Own Story

The people pushing expansion describe it as a pressure valve for an overheated sport. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made his case on Big 12 Today in May, per On3.

“I do like 24 for a couple of reasons,” Yormark said. “One, I think too many good teams are being left out.”

Yormark also argued that schools are pouring money into rosters just to be one of 12, and that a 24-team playoff takes heat off coaches whose jobs ride on that one number. Kirk Herbstreit, of all people, shrugged on The Pat McAfee Show around the same time.

“Kind of indifferent,” Herbstreit said. “Until you get experience with it, it’s hard to hate it.”

Both camps have a point, and that is what makes this so messy. Yormark is right that a 12-team bracket leaves good teams at home, and the critics are right that the Big Ten and SEC, which take 58 percent of the playoff money under the current distribution, are the likeliest leagues to fill the new seats. Players will pick up the tab, too, since a champion coming out of the first round could play 17 games in a season that keeps getting longer.

Jeyarajah pointed out that the last at-large spot in a 24-team field last season would have gone to an 8-4 Iowa team that went 0-4 against ranked opponents. Under the 12-team format, that same Iowa team watched the playoff from home.