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College Football Playoff Set for Massive Shake-Up With Expanded Format

By Kyle Nachtsheim
7:40 PM 4 min read
College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff has officially expanded.

According to ESPN, the network has reached an five-year, $1.7 billion agreement on Monday to continue to be the exclusive worldwide media rights holder.

This new format will not only mean more teams to make the playoffs but also create a seismic shift in the college football calender.

“Today’s announcement reflects the strength of this partnership and out shared commitment to delivering even more excitement for fans in the years ahead in this new playoff format that the [College Football Playoff] has created,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro in a statement.

Under the new format, what was previously known as Week 0 will become the official start of the college football season, taking place the week before Labor Day. The regular season will still span 14 weeks, with the final regular-season games played on Thanksgiving weekend.

The calendar shift also means the Power Four conference championship games will be discontinued after this season. There has been no official word on whether the Group of Six conference championship games will be eliminated as well.

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“I think it’s a great historic game,” Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart told Yahoo Sports. “It’s great for the players, the programs, the fans. The location has been awesome for us and the venue is incredible. All those things are awesome, but times, they are changing and as they change, we’ve got to adapt with it.”

The annual Army-Navy game, traditionally held the week after the conference championships, will move to the first Saturday in December.

The College Football Playoff field will include automatic bids for the Power Four conferences, with each conference champion determined after the regular season. The highest-ranked Group of Six team will also earn an automatic bid. If no Group of Six team is ranked in the top 24, that team will be seeded No. 24.

“I’m for what makes things not get decided by committees and make things get decided on football fields,” said Duke head coach Manny Diaz during his media avaliability.

Under the new framework, the Blue Devils would have advanced to the playoff last season as ACC champions despite having five regular-season losses.

One potential positive is that the top eight teams will be able to host a playoff game before the quarterfinals move to neutral sites.

The remaining 19 spots will be awarded as at-large bids based on the final College Football Playoff rankings. No team, including Notre Dame, will receive an automatic bid simply for being ranked in the poll.

“I don’t want this to be like March Maddness, and have 60-something teams,” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman told Adam Rittenberg. “That doesn’t mean it’s good for everybody else, but for us at Notre Dame, it’s a positive.”

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The Fighting Irish would receive an automatic berth in this season’s playoff if they finish in the top 12, especially after defeating previous No. 1 Miami last weekend.

Questions About the New College Football Playoff

This new playoff format does raise a couple of questions.

First off, what will happen to the non-College Football Playoff bowl games? In an era when teams decide playing in a bowl game is not in their best interest, whether because of a coaching change, a lack of available players or a teams refual to participate, it is unclear whether any bowl games will be eliminated.

Iowa State, Kansas State and Notre Dame declined bowl bids in 2025, forcing bowl games to add three teams with 5-7 records to their lineups. With more teams participating in the playoffs, it is unclear whether bowl eligibility requirements will change.

Finally, how will this affect conference realignment when television contracts start expiring around 2030? The first domino fell when James Madison announced Oct. 12 that it had accepted an offer to join the American Conference. While the Dukes are joining another Group of Six conference, the playoff expansion may give the American Conference a faster pathway to the postseason than the Sun Belt.

While the latest College Football Playoff rankings will not come out until Tuesday, the playoff bracket would look like this based on the latest AP Top 25, released Monday, Nov. 9:

  • No. 24 LSU at No. 9 Tennessee (winner plays at No. 8 Texas in second round)
  • No. 23 New Mexico at No. 10 Texas Tech (winner plays at No. 7 Alabama in second round)
  • No. 22 Arizona at No. 11 Wake Forest (winner plays at No. 6 Indiana in second round)
  • No. 21 Ohio State at No. 12 BYU (winner plays at No. 5 Miami in second round)
  • No. 20 South Carolina at No. 13 Kentucky (winner plays at No. 4 UCLA in second round)
  • No. 19 Ole Miss at No. 14 Houston (winner plays at No. 3 Notre Dame in second round
  • No. 18 Oregon at No. 15 USC (winner plays at No. 2 Utah in second round)
  • No. 17 Boise State (Group of 6 highest ranked) at No. 16 Iowa (winner plays at No. 1 Georgia in second round)

All four Power Four champions would be ranked in the top eight, meaning they would receive a bye to the second round. The Pac-12 would send Boise State, while the Mountain West would also send New Mexico to the playoff. Only Liberty and North Texas received votes in the AP Poll.

While the reaction about the expansion has been mixed so far, the 24-team College Football Playoff field will officially arrive in the 2027 season.

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