College Football Playoff 'more serious' than ever about 24 teams, but 2027 start not guaranteed — SkimNews
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- Rich Clark told CBS Sports the sport is "more serious" than ever about expanding from 12 to 24 teams, but said it is not a "foregone conclusion" as CFP enters its final week of exclusive ESPN negotiations.
- The CFP faces a Dec. 1 deadline to make format changes for the 2027-28 season, though Clark said a 2027 start isn't guaranteed — the expanded bracket would wait until 2028 at the earliest if logistics aren't finalized.
- The emerging 24-team model would include the top 23 CFP Selection Committee-ranked teams plus the highest-ranked Group of Six team, with the first two rounds played on campuses: eight first-round games, eight second-round games, and eight byes.
- Conference leaders want assurance of more than $200 million in additional revenue to offset lost championship games, with the SEC alone losing roughly $100 million by eliminating its title game.
- SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a late-August memo conditioning his support on power-conference teams playing 10 games against power-conference opponents or Notre Dame — a standard the Big Ten doesn't currently require but commissioner Tony Petitti said it would adopt.
- The 24-team bracket would overlap with the Army-Navy game in mid-December; the CFP hasn't spoken directly to the academies but has discussed rescheduling the game to the first Saturday of December.
Why it matters: The Big Ten and SEC must both agree for expansion to happen, and Sankey's late-August memo broke the SEC's resistance only after the league was promised $100 million in offsetting revenue — meaning a single Oct. 9 ESPN deadline and a Dec. 1 CFP vote now determine whether roughly two dozen teams compete for a national title starting in 2027 or 2028.
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