New Rumors on College Football Playoff Expansion Update Buzz on 24-Team Bracket, Schedule Format

A 24-team College Football Playoff reportedly "feels like a foregone conclusion."

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported as much Wednesday, noting CFP executives held their first in-person meeting during a 30-day negotiating window with ESPN regarding the future of the postseason format.

Those meetings, which included conference commissioners, featured discussions about schedules and eliminating conference championship games. The deadline for CFP leaders and ESPN to come to terms on a new format is Oct. 9, otherwise the 24-team idea would go to the open market ahead of the Dec. 1 deadline for deciding whether there will be an expanded field for the 2027 season.

"We've worked through a lot of the other issues associated with [a 24-team] expansion and those things needed to happen before we started any kind of negotiation [over money]," CFP executive director Rich Clark said.

As Dellenger noted, the 24-team field started as a proposal from the Big Ten last August and now counts the ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame as proponents.

While the SEC initially showed "staunch opposition," commissioner Greg Sankey showed "a sign of openness" last month when he circulated requirements for such a field that included all power conference teams to play at least 10 games against power conference opponents.

Clark even provided early hints at what the schedule would look like with the eight first-round games "ideally" slated for the week after the regular season when conference championship games typically take place.

The eight second-round games would also "most likely" be on campus in the third week of December.

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There are still things to sort out, such as what to do with the Army-Navy game in December and other bowls, but it seems like progress is being made toward a 24-team field even if it means sacrificing the approximately $250 million generated by conference championship games.

"The money is there," one CFP stakeholder told Dellenger, although Clark said, "The revenue is an unknown. That's why we're in this negotiating window."

Dellenger's report suggests the conference in-fighting may be coming to an end as the sport moves toward the 24-team CFP format.

For now, though, there is still a 12-team format in place for the current season with first-round games played on the campus of the better seed. But there could be twice as many teams vying for spots as soon as next season.