A 24-team College Football Playoff reportedly “feels like a foregone conclusion,” and if that doesn’t make you sit up and pay attention, I don’t know what will! Ross Dellenger over at Yahoo Sports dropped this bombshell Wednesday, after CFP executives just wrapped up their first in-person meeting during a critical 30-day negotiating window with ESPN. This isn’t just talk, folks, this is the real deal heading into a massive shake-up for college football.
The Clock is Ticking for a Monster Expansion
Seriously, these aren’t just chats around the water cooler. These meetings included all the big shots: conference commissioners and CFP leaders, all hammering out the future of the postseason. They were digging into schedules and, get this, even discussing wiping out conference championship games altogether. Can you even imagine a world without those? There’s a hard deadline coming up on October 9 for CFP leaders and ESPN to seal the deal on a new format. If they can’t agree by then, the whole 24-team idea goes to the open market. And we’ve got another big date: December 1, which is the absolute final deadline for deciding if an expanded field is actually happening for the 2027 season. CFP executive director Rich Clark laid it out: “We’ve worked through a lot of the other issues associated with [a 24-team] expansion and those things needed to happen before we started any kind of negotiation [over money].” It’s clear they’re past the initial hurdles and getting down to brass tacks.
The SEC Flip-Flop and a Wild New Schedule
This 24-team dream actually started as a proposal from the Big Ten last August, and now it’s got serious momentum, with the ACC, Big 12, and even Notre Dame hopping on board. And get this: the SEC, which was initially throwing “staunch opposition” at the idea, has apparently had a change of heart! Commissioner Greg Sankey, just last month, showed “a sign of openness.” His big requirement? All power conference teams gotta play at least 10 games against other power conference opponents. Sounds like a gauntlet. Clark even gave us a sneak peek at what the new schedule could look like. We’re talking eight first-round games “ideally” going down the week after the regular season, exactly when those conference championship games usually clog up the schedule. Then, “most likely,” another eight second-round games would be played on campus in the third week of December. Talk about some epic home-field advantage in the playoffs! Sure, there’s still stuff to figure out, like what happens to the Army-Navy game and all the other bowl games, but you can feel the momentum building.
The $250 Million Question
Here’s the rub, though: getting rid of those conference championship games means kissing goodbye to around $250 million. That’s a huge chunk of change! One CFP stakeholder told Dellenger flat out, “The money is there.” But Clark countered that with a dose of reality, saying, “The revenue is an unknown. That’s why we’re in this negotiating window.” So, while it seems like the old conference in-fighting might finally be settling down, the financial talks are clearly where the real fireworks are. For now, we’re still rolling with the 12-team format this season, with those first-round games right there on the campus of the higher seed. But get ready, because we could be looking at double the number of teams battling for that championship trophy as soon as next season. The countdown to October 9 is ON!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleacher Report.
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