College Football Playoff To Expand to 24 Teams Beginning in 2027 Season 

The College Football Playoff will expand to 24 teams next season.

The CFP and ESPN have signed a five-year, nearly $1.7 billion deal to accommodate the expanded format that will keep ESPN as its continued broadcast partner, according to an ESPN report. The additional media rights value adds to the existing $7.8 billion media rights package between the CFP and ESPN for the 12-team format that runs until 2032.

The move would add an additional week to the expanding bracket. It will eliminate Power 4 conference championship games after this season. The Army-Navy game is expected to be moved to the second Saturday in December, when conference championships would have taken place.

The announcement follows months of negotiations. Since virtually the moment the 12-team playoff began, college sports administrators have courted the idea of an even bigger (and more lucrative) field. While the official vote for expansion technically included all 10 FBS conferences and university representatives, the SEC and Big Ten had the ultimate say in choosing the next format. 

The CFP and ESPN then engaged in a negotiating period of well over 30 days, saying Friday afternoon they were in the final stages of ironing out terms.

How We Got Here

Over the past year, conference administrators floated multiple formats. Though there were conversations about a 16-team playoff, the idea of a 24-team playoff quickly gained momentum, particularly among the Big Ten. 

In February, the Big Ten began sharing a proposed 24-team playoff format amongst its peers. The proposal included ranking the 23 best teams, without automatic qualifiers, and one guaranteed spot for the Group of 6 conference schools. The top eight teams would receive automatic byes. The first and second-round games would all take place on college campuses. The quarterfinals would fall on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at bowl sites, as would the semifinals would be the following week. Then, the national championships would be at a neutral site in mid-January. 

This summer, the ACC and Big 12 voiced support for the 24-team playoff. The lone holdout appeared to be the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey, who was particularly concerned about the impact of an expanded field on the regular season, and the fate of the financially lucrative conference championship games. 

“I sure feel like it’s headed towards 24 [teams],” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne told Front Office Sports last month. “I do think that we have to be very sensitive to making sure the regular season continues to have the value that it does.” 

The formal deadline for whether the CFP will expand to 24 teams for the 2027 season was on Dec. 1; if an agreement was not reached then the CFP will remain at 12 teams next season. Last month, the CFP issued a statement announcing it’s officially considering expansion to 24 teams. Amid those talks, Rich Clark told FOS Tonight’s Matt Iseman that conversations were taking place not just about money and media rights, but also format and scheduling. 

Evolution of the CFP 

The College Football Playoff debuted in 2014 with four teams. 

The field expanded to 12 teams ahead of the 2024-25 season, as was a six-year, $7.8 billion media rights extension with ESPN for the new format. The network then struck a sublicensing agreement with TNT for several games.For the past two seasons, the CFP has operated with that 12-team format, utilizing the New Year’s Six bowl games as rotating hosts for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

Minor changes to the 12-team bid process have been made each year. 

In 2024, the four highest-ranked conference champions received first-round byes. But in 2025, the seeding protocol changed, and the 12 qualifying teams were ranked from highest to lowest, granting the top four ranked programs overall byes rather than the top four ranked conference champions.

In the previous two years, the five automatic bids were awarded to the top five-ranked conference champions. (Last season’s ACC Champion, Duke, was left out after a 7-5 regular season, replaced by Sun Belt champion James Madison, which was ranked above it.) But this year, the Power 4 conferences will each be guaranteed a spot for their conference champion, along with one spot for the highest-ranked team overall from the Group of 6 (formerly the Group of 5). Additionally, Notre Dame will be guaranteed a spot if it finishes ranked in the top 12. 

Revenue distribution has also changed, with the SEC and Big Ten receiving more than half of all distributions between them. 

Now, the biggest change yet is on the horizon with a 24-team model. This year’s CFP, which will culminate on Monday, Jan. 25 in Las Vegas, will mark the end of the 12-team era.