Never miss CFP - Natty Road đ
LAS VEGAS â Itâs true. The 24-team CFP plan is happening. Unless youâve been living under a rock, youâve seen the expansion talk; the handshake deal between ESPN and the playoff committee for the 2027 season.
Yes, the 2026 season keeps the 12-team College Football Playoff format, with selection scheduled for Dec. 6 and the national championship set for Jan. 25, 2027, here in Las Vegas.
After that, the 24-team CFP era will be here, like it or not. If youâre one of those JV trolls who spent the past six months posting comments that âitâll never happen,â welp, avert your eyes. This oneâs not for you.
Real college football fans, not the hot-take fools seeing how many comment threads they can get laughed out of in a day, hereâs what real fans hate about the 24-team CFP plan:
Participation trophy problems
Sure, the 24-team College Football Playoff gives more teams a hypothetical shot at the Natty, but it also risks turning too many Saturdays into exhibition games instead of must-win football.
Look at all the top-5 teams who choked in recent weeks. Indiana dropped out of the top 5. And Georgia (then No. 1). Notre Dame. Then BYU. Now look at this 24-team CFP plan that wonât go away. None of those losses will hurt next year; all of those teams still make a top-24 bracket.
The trouble with that is simple: In 2024, we already saw two-loss Ohio State go on to win the CFP championship. So really, ranked losses already donât matter much in the current 12-team CFP.
So who really gets into a 24-team playoff? Some 8-4 Power-4 team gets seeded into a second-round conference rematch (YAWN). More of those Little Sisters of the Poor first-round blowouts from 2025 (SNORE). More access doesnât automatically deliver better football. Fans donât travel for games like that. Nobody wants merch from the early-round playoff games.
And look, this is supposed to be hard. Getting into the playoffs should mean something. Beating a ranked opponent in the regular season should mean something.
What gets lost
The 24-team framework likely eliminates conference championship games. Conference champions would still earn automatic bids under the proposed structure, but the standalone title-game showdown would disappear.
Thatâs a major loss. Rivalries, conference bragging rights and postseason positioning collide in those games.
Now look at the Big Ten since the Power-4 expansion. With more teams, conference standings end up with more tied records between teams that didnât play head-to-head in the regular season. Thereâs been a three-way tie somewhere in mix for Big Ten title game qualifiers every year since the 2024 Power-4 expansion.
The toilet bowl
Non-playoff bowl games have almost zero draw in a 24-team CFP scenario. Whoâs even left for those mid-tier bowls? Utah State vs. Purdue in the Double Flush Bowl brought to you by Exlax? Hard pass!
The bowl game committees have held on desperately through these 25 years of the BCS evolving into on-field playoffs. First the four-team playoff, then the 12-team CFP; next the 24-team bracket coming in 2027.
Every stage of playoff growth takes more quality teams out of the non-CFP bowl game circuit. That puts fewer butts in seats, sells fewer bowl-branded hoodies, and gets lower TV ratings. More and more, we could see the bowl game revenue migrating to the CFP Final Four and starving out the rest of the food chain.
Eventually, Myrtle Beach, Boise, or even San Diego will have to cut losses and start the domino effect of second-tier bowl games dying off. Bowl game committees have been fighting to prevent this moment for decades.
The bottom line
More teams in the CFP means more fan bases get offseason hope. But the best college football will still be those game days when a contenderâs season hangs in the balance. The 24-team CFP takes a lot of air out of September and October.
The risk is what you already see in college and pro basketball playing to empty arenas through the painfully long, nearly meaningless dress rehearsal of the regular season. And that creates a cash flow problem the big business of college football wonât be able to afford without cutting from the bottom. Especially in this era of wide-open NIL paychecks.
The nationâs top players will still sign with the teams that are already dominant. No blue-chip Power-4 prospect will be fooled into thinking UTEP, UMass, or Louisiana-Monroe is the most likely path to the Natty.
The illusion of more access gives the dominant Power-4 brands even more margin for error.
The illusion of more access turns into college football belt-tightening once those 2027 receipts start rolling in.
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