After one season in the 12 Team College Football Playoff format, the topic of the offseason has been expanding the Playoff. The SEC and the Big 12 have preferred the "5+11 model," which would guarantee the 5 highest-ranked conference champions bids into the playoff and leaving 11 bids for at-large teams. The Big Ten however, has held up the expansion of the Playoff as they want the SEC to move to 9 Conference games, and they also prefer other models.
As the sides couldn't agree, nothing is in place for the 2026-2027 season, meaning the conferences will continue to debate different formats. The Big Ten continues to hold up the discussion, and its latest proposal may be the worst one yet.
On Saturday, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that the Big Ten is considering the expansion of the College Football Playoff, where the field would grow to 24 or 28 teams.
The Big Ten has considered an idea of a massive expansion of the College Football Playoff that would grow the postseason to 24 or 28 teams, sources told @PeteThamel. https://t.co/Gx8Ouan17G
— ESPN (@espn) August 16, 2025
The idea of taking the 12 Team format and either instantly doubling it or more than doubling it is absurd and allows far too many teams into the playoffs. Before the start of the playoffs last season, UNLV, with 3 losses, was ranked 24th, while several teams ahead of them were 4-loss teams, which frankly isn't a "playoff-worthy" team.
The goal of the Playoff is to crown a Champion, and a team that loses 4 or 5 games in the regular season simply isn't worthy of having a chance at being crowned National Champions. By allowing this many teams into the Playoff, the regular season is completely devalued as almost everyone could lose a 3rd of their games and have a chance to make it into the Playoff.
At the end of the day, corporate greed is going to end up ruining the parts of College Football that we all love the most. The conferences make more money by expanding the Playoff and doubling the field only gives them more games to sell. The networks will love expansion as it gives them more games to air and more ads to sell so they'll be fine with it.
The sport's commissioners continue to ignore what's best for the fans and eventually they're going to go too far.
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