The Worldwide Leader in Sports does not appear to be in favor of a massive playoff expansion amidst nationwide rumors and conversations of potential growth in the near future.
On3 Sports’ Andy Staples tweeted out a quote from ACC commissioner Jim Phillips on Wednesday afternoon that seemingly gives ESPN’s stance on potential expansion: “ESPN has been pretty clear with all of us that they’d like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16.”
The current format is set at 12 teams, as it has been since the 2024 season. In January, ESPN’s Heather Dinich reported that her sense in talking to people around the league was that there was “more momentum than ever” to move to a 16-team field. While the deadline to expand the 2026 season’s playoffs has passed, there’s obviously still conversation around the topic for the future.
This also comes on the heels of the NCAA expanding the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments from 68 to 76 teams, which will be effective immediately.
Dinich’s report back in January also stated that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti “have the bulk of the control over the future format.”
On3’s Pete Nakos has also previously reported that if there’s going to be an expansion for the College Football Playoffs in 2027, it’ll need to work out a deal by Dec. 1, 2026.
After Staples posted Phillips’ quote about ESPN to X on Wednesday, a user followed up by asking him if ESPN is just worried that it won’t be able to cover enough of the games.
“Not exactly,” Staples replied. “They own exclusive rights to a 14-team CFP. Go bigger, and those extra games get sold on the open market. So either ESPN has to put up or Fox (probably) gets them.”
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With this information, it’s no surprise that ESPN wants to keep its hold on the entirety of the CFP slate and not let any of its competitors touch the golden goose. But ESPN doesn’t hold the same opinion as several other prominent figures or entities around the college football world, including Tennessee AD Danny White.
During the Big Orange Caravan event in April, White was asked his thoughts on potential expansion in the College Football Playoffs. The Tennessee Director of Athletics and Vice Chancellor is in favor of doubling the current size.
“I’d like to see it go to 24 (teams),” White said, via Newschannel 5’s Steve Layman on X. “I think you look at the percentage of the field in football – it’s significantly less than every other sport that we have. The expanded playoff, I’ve always been an advocate for it, since way before I even came to Tennessee. I thought it would be better for the regular season. There were a lot of naysayers that said it would decimate the regular season. And what happened? We had higher ratings in the regular season than we’ve ever had before, particularly in the back third of the regular season when more teams are in the hunt. Which is healthy, and I think we see that in all of our other sports. But, a bigger percentage of SEC teams, a bigger percentage of FBS teams in general, should qualify for the postseason if we’re going to crown our national champion that way. And, we clearly are.”
There are countless pieces to this puzzle, with the opinions of coaches, athletic departments, commissioners, and networks. Figuring out a way to get enough people on board with one specific direction is clearly proving to be a tough task, which is why nothing was figured out ahead of the 2026 season despite plenty of prior conversation about it.
On Wednesday afternoon, On3’s Brett McMurphy reported that the Big 12 and ACC are in support of a 24-team playoff, just like Danny White.
“When you’re leaving national championship contending teams out of the playoff, you don’t have the right number,” Phillips said, via Staples on X. “We lived through it. We suffered through it with Florida State when the field was four… Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team.”
So what happens in the future? It’s hard to tell right now. But with the offseason in full swing, it seems like notable figures throughout the college football landscape aren’t afraid to throw their opinion out to try to garner some buzz on the topic.
