What is the latest talk on the expansion of the CFP?

The eyes of the college football world will turn to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida tonight for the CFP National Championship between Miami and Indiana. While 20 million people (or more) will watch Fernando Mendoza and Carson Beck battle it out for the national title, many will forget that just two seasons ago the Hurricanes would have never sniffed a playoff appearance with their 10-2 regular season record. 2024 national champion Ohio State also would not have made the playoffs without postseason expansion, which has once again become a hot topic in college football.

As Curt Cignetti and Mario Cristobal lead Indiana and Miami, respectively, onto the field tonight, down the street into a hotel ballroom, the decision-makers have once again broached the subject of playoff expansion, just two seasons after moving from the four-team playoffs (which lasted 10 years) to the 12-team playoffs (which will complete their second iteration Monday night). The talk, however, is not “will it expand”. The sticking point is: “Where are we going to expand?” »

According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo SportsThe major division in the room is between the two biggest players: the SEC and the Big Ten. The SEC, led by Commissioner Greg Sankey, wants to maintain the CFP at 12 teamsbut is aiming for a field of 16 teams if expansion is inevitable. Meanwhile, the Big Ten, led by commissioner Tony Pettiti, intends to expand to 24 teams. As of now, the college football schedule does not allow for expansion, with the Army-Navy game taking place the Saturday after the conference championships and the first round of the playoffs beginning the following week (the weekend before Christmas).

The first iteration of playoff expansion began a process that quickly created a slippery slope: the devaluation of the sport’s most valuable regular season. College football is built on tradition, and a 24-team playoff, at least at the FBS level, is anything but traditional. If a team loses a quarter (or more) of its regular season games, is that team really worthy of competing for a national title? This works in the smaller divisions of football because the talent level is equal, and even though NIL and the transfer portal have brought more parity to the FBS level, the talent still comes together at the top. According to the 247 Sports team recruiting rankings, you have to go all the way to No. 10 to find a non-SEC/Big Ten/Notre Dame team. Miami sits at No. 10 and the Hurricanes have two more losses before playing for a national title Monday night. The first Big 12 team to appear is Texas Tech at No. 18. The highest non-Power Four team is Boise State at No. 51.

12 teams is a perfectly acceptable model. This prevents one mistake from derailing an entire season, as is the case with the 2025 Alabama Crimson Tide (who suffered three losses heading into the playoffs). Expansion does not appear to be the solution, but rather an adjustment to the current model combined with an adjustment to the schedule.

Adjustments

12 teams is perfectly acceptable, but the timing is not. The four teams with byes into the 2025 College Football Playoff (Indiana, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas Tech) had a month off between their final conference championship weekend games and their first playoff game. The teams that played in the first round (Oregon, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami, Tulane and James Madison) also received a bye week due to the schedule of the Army-Navy game. The solution is simple: move the Army-Navy game.

President Trump signed an executive order giving the Army-Navy game an exclusive four-hour window for their contest, which is great. Move it to week one and play it Sunday or Monday (Labor Day) in an exclusive window. We’re already doing this with week one games, and Army and Navy’s introduction of the new season would still give the game the pomp it deserves. This would allow the playoffs to move up a week and begin after the conference championships (or the conclusion of the season, mirroring the NFL schedule). This still rewards teams that get a first-round bye while shortening the college football schedule to be more in line with the academic calendar.

The playoff talk will continue until the adults in the room wake up and understand that the current model is perfectly acceptable, but with minor adjustments we can continue to grow the game and thus generate more revenue, which is the basis of all this discussion, without devaluing the greatest regular season in sports.

Wyatt Fulton is the DME Tide 100.9 and brand manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men’s basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.