College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams: 2027 move has big impact on conference championships, Heisman
By Google News Sports ·
In a landscape-altering move, the College Football Playoff is officially expanding to a 24-team format for the 2027 season, sources told CBS Sports.
The field will be built with a "19+4+1" model with 19 at-large bids, four reserved for Power Four champions and one for the highest-rated Group of Six champ. First- and second-round games would be played on campuses. The quarterfinal and semifinal games will continue to be played in traditional bowls like the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl.
The move to 24 teams, long expected a formality in college football circles, will eliminate the popular and lucrative conference championship games. The SEC originated the conference championship game in 1992, and it had been an annual source of significant revenue for the conference in the neighborhood of $100 million.
Last year's Alabama-Georgia SEC Championship averaged 16.9 million viewers, the seventh-most watched game of the season. The SEC announced on Monday that its 2026 conference title game would be its last.
Another significant change: The Heisman Trophy ceremony will be moving up a week to the first weekend of December. In 2027, it will happen the weekend of December 3-5. With no conference title games, there will be an open week after the regular season ends the last weekend of November. The CFP will then start the first full week of December.
The CFP is currently in its third year of the 12-team playoff format. Next year will be the debut of a doubled field of 24 teams.
Playoff expansion has felt inevitable for some time now. The only question was how many teams would be included. The Big Ten and SEC had control over the future format but were not always on the same page about the number. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey publicly supported a 16-team playoff but eventually acquiesced to the Big Ten's preferred 24-team format.
The ACC, Big 12 and independent power Notre Dame also supported a 24-team format.
While the 24-team playoff format has not been particularly popular with fans to this point, the hope around the idea is that it will get more fanbases invested in the playoff race and late season games. It is about more access to the playoff, rather than a signifiant financial boon for the conferences.
CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello previously reported the CFP could offer an additional $320 million on top of the current contract, which averages $1.2 billion per year.
"The decision to expand was driven by a desire to increase opportunities for FBS programs, student-athletes and fan bases to participate in the Playoff and have a chance to play for the CFP National Championship, while new scheduling standards incentivize institutions to schedule more compelling non-conference matchups during the regular season," the College Football Playoff said in a statement.
"The expanded format will feature 16 on-campus Playoff games, which will bring Playoff football to more students and local fans while providing a positive impact for campus communities."
The CFP debuted in a four-team format at the end of the 2014 season with Ohio State winning the national championship. A decade later, in 2024, the playoff was expanded to 12 teams, and Ohio State was once again the first team to make it through the larger bracket.
The move toward a 24-team College Football Playoff followed more than a year of debate and negotiation, with the sport's two most powerful conferences initially advocating for different approaches.
The Big Ten pushed for a…
Originally published by Google News Sports
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