College Football Playoff nears deal to expand to 24 teams starting 2027

The College Football Playoff is nearing an agreement with ESPN that would expand the postseason field from 12 teams to 24 beginning in the 2027 season, ESPN college football reporter Pete Thamel reported on October 15, 2026. The expansion has not been formally approved; Thamel described it as a deal that is "expected to come together in the near future, pending final approvals."

CFP leadership, made up of the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame's athletic director, must approve any format change by December 1 for it to take effect for the 2027 season, according to ESPN.

What the proposed 24-team format looks like

Under the structure described by ESPN, the 24-team field would include 19 at-large selections, the champions of the four Power Conferences, and the highest-ranked Group of Six team. Teams seeded No. 1 through 8 would receive a first-round bye and a home game in the next round, while seeds No. 9 through 16 would host a first-round game on campus.

The six New Year's Six bowls — the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Peach, Orange and Cotton — are expected to continue hosting quarterfinal and semifinal games, with the national championship remaining in January, Yahoo Sports and ESPN reported.

Money, conference championship games and ESPN's role

ESPN currently pays roughly $1.3 billion a year under a six-year, $7.8 billion contract signed in March 2024 that runs through the 2031 season. Yahoo Sports reported the new agreement for the expanded field is expected to require ESPN to add at least $300 million a year in rights fees.

That added revenue is tied to an expected byproduct of expansion: the elimination of the Power Conference championship games. ESPN reported those games currently generate roughly $300 million in combined annual revenue that the CFP would need to recoup through the larger broadcast deal. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has said his conference wants assurance that the new format generates enough money to offset that loss, which ESPN estimated at $80–100 million a year for the SEC alone.

Where the conferences stand

The Big Ten has been described by ESPN as "the driving force" behind the 24-team push, with Commissioner Tony Petitti backing a model built around automatic qualifiers and what he has called "tiered incentives" to keep regular-season games meaningful. The Big 12, ACC and Notre Dame also publicly support the 24-team plan, according to ESPN's reporting on league meetings.

The SEC has been more cautious. ESPN reported the conference previously favored a 16-team, "5+11" model with guaranteed bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions, and that Sankey has asked all Power Conference leagues to commit to scheduling 10 Power Conference opponents before he signs off on expansion — a standard ESPN said 11 Power Conference teams would not currently meet in 2027.

Reaction and unresolved questions

Not everyone has welcomed the plan. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian called the push to 24 teams a "knee-jerk reaction" and questioned whether the selection committee has the capacity to evaluate dozens of additional teams each week, according to CBS Sports. "The committee doesn't have the bandwidth to watch that many games," Sarkisian said, per CBS Sports.

ESPN also reported that it remains unresolved what expansion would mean for Group of Six programs, since those conferences would still be guaranteed only one automatic bid and could face pressure to drop FCS opponents from their schedules.

ESPN reported the expanded format would also shift the college football calendar, moving the start of the season about a week earlier.

Background

The CFP expanded from four teams to 12 for the 2024 season. ESPN reported that under the current timeline, a move to 24 teams just two years later would mark a second major structural change inside a single media-rights cycle, one that CFP leaders and ESPN opened a 30-day negotiating window to work out between September 9 and October 9, 2026, with talks continuing afterward.