A 24-team bracket from next season
The College Football Playoff will double in size to 24 teams starting next season, the playoff and ESPN announced on Monday. It is the third expansion in four seasons, after the field grew from four teams to 12 in 2024.
Under the new format, the champions of the Power Four conferences get automatic places, plus one for the best team from the Group of Six. The remaining 19 places go to a selection committee. Conference championship games, long among the sport's biggest television events, are dropped.
ESPN pays more, and admits uncertainty
ESPN will pay an additional $1.7 billion over five years on top of its existing $7.8 billion contract, which runs through the 2031 season. The network said cancelling the title games saves it about $140 million of that. The Power Four conferences had been generating roughly $345 million in television money from those games.
“In all honesty, it's impossible to know for sure,” ESPN senior vice president Nick Dawson said when asked whether more playoff places would protect or dilute the regular season. More teams stay alive later into November, but a loss in September matters much less.
What changes for fans and players
A 24-team field means more games in December, more travel for players and a longer season for teams that reach the final. It also reshapes recruiting: programmes that once had to win a conference to have any hope can now aim for an at-large place.
Critics say the sport is copying the professional model and trading tradition for inventory. Supporters say the 12-team version already proved that more access sells. The first 24-team bracket will be selected in December 2027, and the title games it replaces will be gone a year earlier.
Conferences also lose a guaranteed showcase weekend. Commissioners had argued for years that title games were the most valuable property they controlled outside the playoff itself, and the new deal moves that value into December playoff rounds.