The first final for the 24-team playoff remains set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans. Traditional bowl games will still host the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
As part of the expansion, the CFP is requiring Power Four teams to play at least 10 “qualifying” regular-season games against conference foes, other Power Four opponents and Notre Dame. Group of Six teams will have to play 10 games against conference opponents and a mix of G6 teams, Notre Dame and other independents.
The agreement guarantees two off weeks during a regular season that will begin the week before Labor Day.
The move to 24 teams marks the second expansion of the playoff since it began in 2014 as a modest four-team affair. Right after it moved to 12 in 2024, most thought it would eventually max out at 16, which was the SEC’s preference.
But the Big Ten wanted to go bigger, while the SEC balked at that, concerned about the league title game -- a property it invented in 1992 and made billions from over the decades -- along with the marketability of games featuring third- and fourth-place finishers in power conferences.
ESPN took care of the money problem. Now, the question is whether fans will embrace an NFL-style free-for-all that could include about one-third of the Power Four’s 68 teams, depending on what happens with the Group of Six schools, whose role in these big-money power grabs seems to diminish with every move.
It's the latest seismic change for a sport that, for decades, built its distinct character and generated controversy by leaning on media and coaching polls to hand out national titles.
The new system won’t be a completely clean break. Critics see a risk in giving more power to a selection committee that hasn’t really mastered the four- or 12-team brackets. The exclusion of Florida State in 2023 and Notre Dame last season stand out as the best examples -- and the first rankings release of this season left people scratching their heads again.
Skeptics also view the expanded playoff as another watering-down of what’s largely seen as one of the most important regular seasons in sports, replacing potential matchups between, say, Alabama and Georgia in an SEC title game with a 13 seed vs. 20 seed game that would pit, say, Kentucky and South Carolina.
But, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti argued from the beginning, a postseason that gives bubble teams hope and keeps others vying for home-field advantage or byes will bring more eyes -- not fewer -- to the end of a regular season that sometimes boils down to only three or four traditional rivalry games with meaning. (One of those traditional games, Ohio State-Michigan, is shaping up to have zero impact on this year’s playoffs this year.)
More at-large berths also help the conferences cash in on the decision to expand their league schedules (the SEC didn’t really want to) and demand more non-league games be played among Power Four teams -- all in an effort to beef up strength-of-schedule ratings that will carry weight with a selection committee.