The College Football Playoff is nearing a deal to expand from 12 to 24 teams beginning with the 2027 season. While the proposal aims to secure long-term media rights and offset the loss of conference championship games, the move faces significant pushback from fans and traditionalists concerned about the sport’s future.
Expansion to 24 Teams and the ESPN Deal
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is closing in on a formal agreement with ESPN to double the size of its postseason bracket. According to reports confirmed by multiple outlets, the expansion is expected to debut in 2027. The potential deal would see ESPN purchase the rights to the additional games through the 2031 season, aligning with the end of the network’s current contract.
While the transition is not yet official-official,
leaders within the sport have signaled that a decision is expected sooner rather than later.
The CFP issued a statement on October 15 confirming that
Constructive discussions with ESPN continued this week. We have enjoyed a strong partnership with ESPN since our inception and are appreciative of the productive dialogue we have had throughout the negotiating period and continuing over the last several days. We will provide additional updates on the matters of future format and media rights when appropriate.
College Football Playoff, Official Statement
Financial Stakes and the Future of Conference Championships
A central tension in the negotiation involves the potential elimination of conference championship games. To compensate for this loss, the CFP is seeking an additional rights fee to bridge the gap.
As one industry observer noted regarding the fate of the title games, They’re gonna be gone.
To maintain the value of the sport, commissioners including the SEC’s Greg Sankey and the Big Ten’s Tony Petitti have pushed for stricter scheduling requirements, proposing that Power 4 schools play at least 10 qualifying events
—defined as games against other Power 4 opponents or Notre Dame—to remain eligible for the expanded playoff.
Tony Petitti was instrumental in the looming College Football Playoff expansion. During his time at ABC in the 1990s, he helped create the sport’s BCS system that decided the national title matchup from 1998 to 2013. In response to earlier shifts, SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, Tony Petitti, and others went to the Big Ten and Pac-10 with an idea that shaped the era. For decades, about half the sport reached bowl games, allowing those teams to celebrate with a postseason berth as a marker of success.
Ever since the postseason tournament started in 2014, committee members have consistently demonstrated a strong preference for selecting multi-loss Power Four schools over Group of Six programs carrying only one defeat or even a spotless record. The inaugural CFP took place at the conclusion of the 2014 campaign with an elite group of four teams, culminating in Ohio State capturing the national crown. A decade later, the playoff was expanded to 12 teams, and Ohio State was the first team to make it through the larger bracket. The selection committee might have ranked teams differently had 24 spots been at stake instead of four or 12, opening the door for more randomness in the Power Four and giving clearer paths to the tournament for teams like North Carolina State, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma State.
Format Changes and Fan Sentiment
The proposed 24-team model would shift the postseason structure significantly. Under the expected 19+4+1
format, the field would include 19 at-large bids, four spots reserved for Power 4 champions, and one for the highest-rated Group of Six representative. Alternatively, the selection committee is anticipated to choose 23 at-large competitors alongside one guaranteed berth for the Group of Six. The opening four matchups of the CFP take place at home arenas, which are then followed by quarterfinal and semifinal rounds that rotate each year amongst six distinct postseason bowls: the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential, and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The CFP National Championship will be held on Monday, January 25, 2027, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The first and second rounds would be played on the campuses of higher-seeded teams, a change that marks a departure from the bowl-centric tradition of the past. The initial weekend of December would feature no collegiate football games apart from the historic Army-Navy clash and anticipated Heisman Trophy presentations, while the second weekend of December would host the opening matchups of the expanded postseason directly on the home turfs of the top-seeded contenders. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day would host the quarterfinal matchups at premier bowl locations, with the semifinal contests taking place one or two weeks later, followed by the championship game scheduled during the latter half of January.
Despite the push from conference leadership, the proposal faces a skeptical public. For schools like Notre Dame, however, the expansion offers a more predictable path to the postseason and the opportunity to bolster their schedules with more high-profile matchups, though critics argue the change threatens the cutthroat nature that historically defined the sport’s regular season. The current 12-team setup fields a lineup consisting of the titleholders from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference, as well as the premier program coming from the American, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West, Pac-12 Conference, or Sun Belt Conference, accompanied by the next seven highest-ranked programs. The University of Notre Dame secures a playoff berth whenever it finishes among the top 12 squads in the ultimate CFP standings.