Well, that escalated quickly.

Just three seasons after the College Football Playoff expanded from four to 12 teams, the CFP Management Committee announced a 24-team model starting in the 2027-28 season.

OFFICIAL: CFP to Expand to 24 Teams Starting with the 2027-28 College Football Season; Announces Exclusive Media Rights Agreement with ESPN to Televise New CFP Games through the 2021-32 Season

Full news release and fact sheet » https://t.co/duBPAfukQy

— CFP (@CFBPlayoff) November 9, 2026

“We will make the 24-team Playoff spectacular for the fans, student-athletes, their institutions and all our stakeholders,” CFP Executive Director Rich Clark said. “That is our commitment. Our organization delivers a world-class championship experience at our games and our events, and this promise will continue under the new format. 23 games of Playoff football, featuring 24 ranked teams going head-to-head for the right to be crowned the true national champion.”

Per initial reports, the new format would give the Power Four conference champions and the top Group of Six champion an automatic berth, leaving 19 slots for the committee to fill.

The new 24-team format eliminates conference championship games. Instead, the top eight seeds will receive first-round byes and host an on-campus second-round playoff game.

All teams will play the first two rounds of playoff games on the higher seed’s campus. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and national championship will be played on neutral sites.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti first publicly supported a 24-team playoff format for college football in May, rather than the 16-team SEC-backed proposal. Now, Petitti’s preference is reality.

However, that will certainly require some schedule rewiring, as non-conference scheduling agreements are set years in advance.

On top of that, Petitti favors mandating that all schools play 10 “qualifying events,” or games against power-league competition and conference opponents.

In retrospect, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft seemed indifferent to the 12-team expansion during his introductory press conference in April 2022.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Kraft said in his introductory press conference. “I want to be top four. That’s what my goal is. If it expands, that’s great. You have a down year and you’re 12. It’s eventually going to get there.”

The Nittany Lions first benefited from playoff expansion in 2024, going 11-1 in the regular season and losing to Oregon in the Big Ten championship to earn the No. 6 seed in the bracket.

Then, the blue and white beat No. 11 seed SMU 38-10 at Beaver Stadium, beat No. 3 seed Boise State 31-14 in the Fiesta Bowl, and fell to No. 7 seed Notre Dame 27-24 in the Orange Bowl, or College Football Playoff semifinal.

If the 24-team model had been adopted sooner, Penn State, at 5-4, likely wouldn’t have secured one of the 24 slots. However, one could argue that Penn State would have consistently benefited from two dozen teams making the playoffs over the last decade.

In 2022 and 2023, Penn State went 10-2 in the regular season and lost to then-top-five-ranked Ohio State and Michigan in back-to-back years. The Nittany Lions played Utah in the 2022 Rose Bowl and Ole Miss in the 2023 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

By our calculations, the Nittany Lions likely would have faced No. 23 Liberty in the first round in 2023 and No. 22 Mississippi State in 2022.

In 2019, Penn State also went 10-2, with losses to No. 17 Minnesota and No. 2 Ohio State. It met Memphis in the Cotton Bowl.

Penn State’s 2016 and 2017 seasons were also two-loss regular seasons, ending with a Fiesta Bowl win over Washington and a Rose Bowl loss to USC.

About the Author