The College Football Playoff will double in size. The CFP management committee voted unanimously on November 9 to expand the field from 12 teams to 24 beginning with the 2027-28 season, and to hold it at 24 through the end of the current agreement in 2031-32. The 2026-27 playoff, which starts next month, stays at 12 teams.
How the field works
Four places go to the conference champions of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, with each league deciding how to identify its champion. One place goes to the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt. The remaining 19 spots go to the highest-ranked teams left in the selection committee's final ranking. Sixteen of the 23 games will be played on campus, which puts playoff football in front of students and local fans instead of neutral-site crowds.
The Big Ten moves first
The Big Ten said it will discontinue its championship game after the 2026 season, and other leagues are expected to follow. The decision removes one of the sport's most valuable broadcast properties, including the SEC title game that has often functioned as a play-in match. The CFP said the change was driven by a wish to widen access for programs and fan bases, and that new scheduling standards will reward schools for booking stronger non-conference opponents.
Money and calendar
ESPN remains the exclusive broadcaster under a five-year deal worth $1.7 billion, and Disney Advertising stays the exclusive seller of the CFP sponsor programme. More games mean more inventory and a longer postseason, stretching from mid-December into January.
Not everyone is pleased. Coaches worry about player workload in a sport without a union or a collective bargaining agreement, and athletic directors must now plan for a season in which a conference title is decided by a formula rather than a game. The trade is deliberate: four times as many teams can tell recruits they have a path to the national championship. Whether that produces better football or simply more of it will be settled on the field starting in 2027.