College Football Playoff expansion: ACC coaches, players support 24-team model
The ACC wants to double the number of teams participating in the College Football Playoff, and official support from the league could be made public soon, CBS Sports has learned.
The conference’s coaches and athletic directors expressed unanimous support for expanding the CFP to 24 teams during a joint meeting Tuesday at the conference’s spring meetings outside Jacksonville. ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips was also at the meeting, sources told CBS Sports.
The development follows the American Football Coaches Association’s push last week for a 24-team field, a format first proposed by the Big Ten last year. Conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, minus the SEC’s Greg Sankey, met at a White House presidential committee meeting earlier this spring and expressed interest and support for a 24-team field.
The Big 12 also supports a 24-team field, commissioner Brett Yormark told CBS Sports on Tuesday.
“The Big 12 likes 24, as long as they do the work and understand the economics,” Yormark said.
This development puts pressure on the SEC, which has yet to move beyond public support for a 12- or 16-team format. The SEC’s annual spring meetings with athletic directors, coaches and university presidents are scheduled to begin May 26.
The Big Ten and SEC share majority ownership in the playoff format, and any expansion decisions must be made in unison between college football’s two most powerful conferences. The two sides disagreed during expansion negotiations last summer and fall, leading the CFP to remain at 12 teams for the upcoming 2026-27 season.
Athletic directors and commissioners are grappling with how to replace broadcast revenue tied to conference championship games, money that would disappear in a 24-team format, with new revenue from an expanded playoff field. The ACC is expected to present revenue projections for a 24-team format to athletic directors on Wednesday, sources told CBS Sports.
“I don’t like to see these things go away,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said, “but I don’t see any other way forward because, again, you have to shorten the season. You have to move it forward.”
FBS coaches at AFCA meetings have raised concerns about the length of the season and long layoffs facing playoff teams. Some sit out more than three weeks between the end of the regular season and a quarterfinal game after earning a first-round bye. The AFCA proposed expanding the playoffs and starting the playoffs the week after the regular season, the weekend currently reserved for conference championship games. Games would run through December, with the season ending on the second Monday in January, well before the January 25 title game of next season.
Meanwhile, momentum is building to start the college football season a week early, in what is currently Week 0, the last week of August. The Division I FBS Oversight Committee recommended an earlier start to fit 12 games into 14 weeks. However, most ACC coaches prefer a schedule with only one week off rather than two.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips is scheduled to speak to reporters Wednesday following the conference’s three-day session of meetings.
Richard Johnson contributed to this report.
