The CFP Just Started.
The Coaches Already Want It Doubled.
A 24-Team Bracket. No More Conference Titles.
The College Football Playoff started its 12-team era in 2024. Two seasons in, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Board of Trustees voted at its annual meeting to recommend doubling the bracket to 24 teams, eliminating conference-championship games entirely, cutting two playoff bye weeks down to one, and ending the season by the second Monday of January. The AFCA has zero formal authority over the CFP — that lives with conference commissioners and university presidents — but its board includes Bret Bielema (Illinois), Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Clark Lea (Vanderbilt), Rhett Lashlee (SMU), Joey McGuire (Texas Tech), and Pat Fitzgerald (Michigan State). The Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 already favor 24. Only SEC commissioner Greg Sankey — defending a “5+11” 16-teamproposal — is in the way. The financial constraint behind all of it: ESPN's $7.8 billion exclusive-rights contract through 2031-32 ($1.3 billion per year beginning 2026-27).
- 24team bracketAFCA-recommended — Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 publicly aligned
- 16team rival planSEC commissioner Greg Sankey's '5+11' format — currently sole holdout
- $7.8BESPN dealSix-year extension through 2031-32 — $1.3B/year starting 2026-27
- 0AFCA authorityBoard recommendations are advisory only — but board members coach the kids
1. Expand the CFP to 24 teams — from the current 12.
2. Eliminate conference championship games entirely — freeing the calendar week.
3. Reduce playoff bye weeks from two to one.
4. End the season by the second Monday in January.
5. Align season end with a single transfer-portal window.
6. Protect the Army-Navy game's exclusive time slot.
AFCA framing: this approach “will better support student-athletes by more closely matching the academic calendar and aligning with the single transfer portal window.”
Decisions about the CFP format are made by a small group of conference commissionersand the CFP Board of Managers(university presidents). The AFCA is a coaches' association — not part of NCAA or CFP governance. Its recommendations are non-binding.
But its board members coach the players the conferences sell. Bielema (Illinois, Big Ten), Venables (Oklahoma, SEC), Lea (Vanderbilt, SEC), Lashlee (SMU, ACC), McGuire (Texas Tech, Big 12), and Fitzgerald (Michigan State, Big Ten) all signing the same recommendation amounts to a Power-Five-wide coaches-room consensus — which is real political pressure on commissioners who depend on those programs to deliver content.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has consistently held out for a 16-team “5+11” format— five conference champions plus the next 11 highest-ranked teams — rather than 24. Sankey's argument: the 12-team era is two seasons old, the economics with ESPN are still being validated, and a jump to 24 dilutes the regular season into participation-trophy territory. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has been the most vocal proponent of 24, with backing from ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark.
“Structuring the season in this way will better support student-athletes by more closely matching the academic calendar and aligning with the single transfer portal window.”
American Football Coaches Association · Board of Trustees recommendation · May 2026
In March 2024, the CFP and ESPN agreed to a six-year, $7.8 billionextension that locks ESPN in as the exclusive media-rights holder through the 2031-32 season. The annual cash starts at roughly $1.3 billion beginning 2026-27. That contract was struck against the 12-team format. Any move to 24 teams functionally re-opens the rights conversation — either ESPN absorbs the additional 12 first-round games at the same price (unlikely), restructures payment, or sublicenses some games to a partner (CBS, Fox, NBC, Amazon all have parking-lot interest). That is the financial gate every coach's recommendation has to pass through.
College football has 134 FBS teams. A 24-team playoff invites 17.9% of the fieldinto the postseason. The original four-team era invited 3%. The current 12-team era invites 9%. The NCAA basketball tournament — the model the proponents cite — invites 20%. The MLB playoffs invite 40%. The NFL invites 43.7%. By raw inclusion percentages, 24 is closer to the bracket-sport norm than the four-team era was — the question is whether college football's regular season, which has historically functioned as the playoff for everyone outside the top tier, survives the change.
Round 1: Seeds 9-24 play eight games. The top 8 seeds get a first-round bye.
Round 2: Seeds 1-8 enter against Round 1 winners. 8 games.
Quarterfinals: 4 games.
Semifinals: 2 games.
National championship: 1 game.
Total games: 23 — up from the current 11.
That's 12 additional CFP games per cycle for ESPN to broadcast (or sublicense), and 23 weekends of postseason football where the regular season currently runs 13. The math, the calendar, and the rights deal all have to bend.
The 12-team College Football Playoff is two years old, ESPN already paid $7.8B for the next six years, and the head coaches who actually run the programs already want the bracket doubled. The Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 are aligned on 24. Only Greg Sankey's SEC stands between college football and a postseason that runs from December through the second Monday in January, with 17.9% of FBS playing in the bracket. Sankey calls it a participation trophy. The coaches call it the future. ESPN holds the checkbook. The next round of conference-commissioner meetings is where the format actually gets decided.