The format of the College Football Playoff (CFP) has been a heated debate in college athletics for more than a decade, since the competition’s inception in the 2014 season. Without a doubt, the creation of the CFP has made the crowning of the national champion all the fairer.
While discussions continued to rage over which four teams deserved a spot in the original format, it was much more competitive to have four teams vying for the chance to be national champions than to have just two teams battle it out in a single game.
The expansion to 12 teams marked another milestone in the history of the competition, and discussions about national champions deserving or not the title have basically died out over the last two seasons. With 12 teams participating in the postseason tournament, it’s almost impossible to say that the best team in the nation is not participating.
But other conversations remain. Is the current format, which prioritizes conference champions, fair? Is the extended schedule too much workload for college athletes? Regardless, calls for expanding the format remain. Possibly because the CFP has turned out to be the most profitable event in college athletics. If not in total numbers, in the game-by-game comparison.
In an unlikely turn, Tennessee Volunteers coach Josh Heupel has expressed his support for the idea of expanding the CFP to a format of 24 teams. He recently told On3:
“The way college football is constantly changing, that probably makes the most sense,” Heupel told On3 of a 24-team College Football Playoff.
College Football Playoff to Remain a 12-Team Competition in 2026
Regardless of the calls to expand the field to 24 teams, for 2026 at least, the CFP will remain with 12 teams. The announcement was made in late January, among expectations that the format could be expanded.
The biggest problem in agreeing on an expansion of the CFP was a disagreement between SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. The SEC is reported to support a 16-team field, while the Big Ten wants a full expansion to 24 teams.
According to ESPN, the Big Ten was willing to compromise to a 16-team format in the next three years if the SEC would agree to a 24-team format after that.
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