Despite continued discussion about expanding the 12-team College Football Playoffs to 16 or 24 teams, it doesn’t appear that will be the case for the upcoming 2026 campaign. Instead, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, it will stay as a 12-team field. He noted that a formal announcement is expected on Friday, as well.
If it officially does stay at 12 teams, there will be some subtle tweaks. Regardless of where teams are ranked, the four winners of the Power Four championship games, the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12, will earn automatic bids. Notre Dame will also earn an automatic bid if it is ranked inside the top 12.
The first round of games will feature the teams seeded 5-12. The higher-seeded team will get home-field advantage for an on-campus game. The winner of those four games will move on to play the top-four seeds, who earned a bye in the playoffs. The bracket is set before the playoffs begin and is not reseeded.
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If the College Football Playoffs look to expand in the future, it’ll need to be by Dec. 1, 2026, to be enacted for the 2027 season, Pete Nakos reports. The current belief is that the SEC would like to go to 16 teams, while the Big Ten wants to go all the way to 24.
Tennessee has earned a spot in the College Football Playoffs once since it began. The Vols were the 9-seed in 2024, meaning they traveled to play Ohio State on the road in the first round. Behind a strong defense and quarterback play from Nico Iamaleava, UT fell short to the eventual national champions.
Prior to the advent of the playoffs, Tennessee had won multiple national championships, though. The Vols claim six titles, including a BCS win over Florida State in the 1998 season.
