College Football Playoff Expands to 24 Teams

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., The College Football Playoff will expand to 24 teams starting with the 2027 season. The announcement, made Monday by the CFP and ESPN, finalizes a deal that pays an additional $1.7 billion over five years. This addition comes on top of the existing $7.8 billion contract that runs through the 2031 season. The change ends the era of conference championship games as primary postseason gateways.

Under the new format, the four Power Four conference champions and the top Group of Six team receive automatic bids. A selection committee will determine the remaining 19 spots. The top eight seeds will earn first-round byes. The playoff kicks off on the second weekend in December, with the first two rounds played on campus. The traditional Army-Navy game moves to the first weekend of December, the slot previously reserved for conference titles.

ESPN will cover $140 million in extra costs associated with the cancellation of conference title games. The Power Four conferences lost an estimated $345 million in TV revenue from those games. Nick Dawson, senior vice president at ESPN, acknowledged uncertainty about the impact. "In all honesty, it is impossible to know for sure," Dawson said during a conference call. The network has not yet decided how it will handle the remaining bowl games.

Scheduling rules are changing to maintain competitive balance. Power Four teams must play at least 10 regular-season games against conference opponents, other Power Four schools, or Notre Dame. Group of Six teams must play 10 conference games. The regular season starts the week before Labor Day and includes two guaranteed off weeks. The first 24-team national championship game is set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans.

Notre Dame, an independent, loses its guaranteed top 12 bid for the current 12-team format. Coach Marcus Freeman called the change a net positive, noting his team can now tolerate more than one loss. "The more opportunities we have to make the playoff, it helps us," Freeman said. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti argued that giving bubble teams hope will increase viewership. The first final remains in New Orleans, while traditional bowls host the quarterfinals and semifinals.

This is the second expansion since the playoff began as a four-team event in 2014. It moved to 12 teams in 2024. The Big Ten pushed for a larger field, while the SEC initially preferred a 16-team model to protect its title game. The new structure allows up to one-third of Power Four teams to participate in the postseason, depending on committee selections.