More College Football Playoff Changes Incoming
As quickly as the college football playoff decided to expand to 12 teams beginning in 2024, it is now on the table to expand to 14 teams beginning in 2026.
In 2026, the potential for a college football expansion to 14 teams is now on the table.
This announcement comes after the College Football Playoff Management Committee met this past Wednesday and the proposal of changes were put on the table.
Starting in 2014, the NCAA went away from the BCS system which chose the top two teams in the nation based on a computer algorithm, to a committee of 13 members that now voted on four teams for the college football playoff.
While better than the computer generated system of two teams, there has been much debate over the last decade over who should be the last team in the playoffs and whether or not the first and second teams left out should have made it over them in many years.
This past year was arguably the best example of that with the undefeated Florida State Seminoles sitting at home as number five in the country despite being undefeated. One loss teams Texas and Alabama were put in over the Seminoles.
While the committee may have gotten this decision correct, there is way too much debate to be ignored, and the thoughts of expanding the college football playoff to 12 teams came to fruition for the 2024 season.
So why the potential expansion to 14 teams? In theory, if you handle your business and go undefeated from a power five, you should be in at 12.
The main reason would be multiple automatic qualifiers for conferences like the ACC, Big 10 and SEC. With the current model set up for 2004 and 2005 to be a 5 + 7 model, this would allot for only a certain number of at large bids. Expanding to 14 teams would allow for a greater chance for these conferences to have more of their teams make the playoff.
And at the end of the day, more teams means more money as well. So this 14 team setup not only increased the probability for the schools to make the playoff and create more revenue for themselves individually, but it trickles down to impact the conferences and the NCAA as well.
So in theory, expanding is a win-win situation for all involved.
Hancock believes that the CFP needs to make a decision on a future format, revenue model and voting structure within the month. These are unresolved issues that are delaying an agreement with ESPN for an extension of the new TV deal.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 21, 2024
Ross Dellenger with Yahoo Sports mentioned on X (Formerly Twitter) that CFP Executive Director, Bill Hancock would like to see a decision “within the month.”
If the playoff is expanded, the next phase will be picked apart as far as the structure. The question at hand would be will there be more games in the first round, or teams with Byes. Time will have to tell here though as we await to hear whether there will be an expansion to 14 teams.