ACC Commissioner Supports 24-Team CFP Bracket Proposal, Says It Offers 'Hope' to Teams

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips voiced his support for expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams, emphasizing the potential benefits of widening access.

Phillips believes its important that administrators and coaches have "hope" about their schools' postseason odds, per ESPN's Andrea Adelson:

"When you're leaving national championship contending teams out of the playoff, you don't have the right number. We suffered through it with Florida State when the field was four, and I know other schools have suffered for it, and I've said this very directly. Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team this year.

"If you're going to ask presidents and chancellors and boards to continue to invest in their football programs, it's really important that they have hope, that they have an opportunity at the beginning of the season to get into the playoff."

There's some irony in Phillips laying out this case only months removed from Indiana running the table and lifting a national championship.

The Hoosiers were one of the least successful power-conference programs historically, yet they assembled a squad that proved to be the best in college football in 2025.

Texas Tech, another school that isn't a traditional power, invested heavily and saw that pay off by claiming the No. 4 seed in the playoff.

That should provide others with plenty of "hope" already.

Alas, there's no disputing the logic that a larger playoff would mean more teams qualify. Duke coach Manny Diaz also pointed out how conference realignment has made it more difficult to rank teams across conferences.

"We have huge conferences, where everybody can't play everybody within a conference," he said, per Adelson. "We're going to nine conference games, which means that there's less inter-conference action, so you can't tell is the third team in this league better than the fifth team in that league."

Miami's Mario Cristobal isn't on board, though. He expressed a concern over how an expanded playoff might lessen the stakes in the regular season:

The Big Ten spearheaded the 24-team CFP format in February, and the ACC throwing its weight behind the proposal is a small step toward making it a reality.

Still, Adelson noted the SEC is standing behind a 16-team postseason, and nothing will progress until the Big Ten and SEC are aligned.