College Football Playoff Expansion Already Heating Up Off-Field Drama

Nine weeks into the first season with an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, the new format is not only giving more teams postseason hopes, but also making things more interesting off the field than ever before.

The first official CFP rankings of the season will be released on Nov. 5, but drama has been building already as four different teams have been ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll at one point or another.

This weekend, ESPN’s and Fox’s rival pregame shows will broadcast from the same campus for the second time this fall as both College GameDay and Big Noon Kickoff travel to Happy Valley ahead of No. 4 Ohio State visiting No. 3 Penn State. Fox airs the game at noon ET, just as the network did when both TV programs were in Ann Arbor around Texas-Michigan in September.

While Fox will surely be expecting a big TV rating, it is ABC that has the three most-watched games of the college football season so far, thanks to Disney’s newly expanded SEC media-rights deal

The Prime Factor

Colorado’s 34–21 win over Cincinnati pushed the Buffaloes to 6–2 on the season, making the school bowl-eligible for the first time under head coach Deion Sanders. Colorado is also now ranked for the first time in 2024, sitting at No. 23 and fourth place in the Big 12. That’s keeping Coach Prime’s squad in the mix—even if still big underdogs—for a spot in the conference championship game, where a win would seal an automatic berth in the CFP. 

Through seven games, Colorado was averaging 3.84 million viewers per contest, down 49% from the same time frame last season, according to Sports Media Watch. (Ratings for the Cincinnati game are not yet available.) But continued on-field success should make the Buffaloes an intriguing watch for the rest of the season. At the very least, one lucky bowl game is guaranteed to benefit from the madness and hype that will surround Sanders & Co. for a postseason game.

Army-Navy in a New Light

Despite Navy’s 51–14 loss to Notre Dame, there is still a possibility the Midshipmen could play service academy rival Army in the American Athletic Conference championship on Dec. 6—eight days before the schools’ annual neutral location meetup—with a potential CFP berth on the line. CFP executive director Rich Clark has said the playoff committee would not factor in the result of the annual Army-Navy game, because the CFP will release its final results before that Dec. 14 matchup.

No. 21 Army and now unranked Navy remained tied atop the AAC standings with Tulane. Boise State is ranked No. 15 and is currently the biggest competition for the Group of 5 CFP bid, should the Broncos ultimately win the Mountain West.