The 10 commissioners of the Power 4 and Group of 6 (G6) conferences, and the Notre Dame Athletic Director, must decide by January 23, 2026, whether to expand the College Football (CFB) Playoff (PO) field. If no agreement on expansion is reached by the 23rd, the 2026-27 PO format will remain the same; 12 teams seeded as ranked. Four Power ...

What to Know About Upcoming Playoff Changes

Thanks Jon for today's article which should bring a great deal of discussion! Too bad that the NCAA doesn't run the CFP like it does for all other levels.

Home games for the first two rounds would be a vast improvement for fans and a reward for teams with a good record. Making a highly ranked team travel thousands of miles cross country to a Bowl site is absurd for the early rounds. Home games this year was a good beginning.

I appreciate your contributions and knowledge to OBD Forum. Thanks!

Jon...you make a great point about how much MORE money the 24 team format will provide for all. I dislike the bye weeks for the better seeds, and wonder if we shouldn't just go to 32 teams and be done with it?

Home games for the higher seeds until the semi-finals? (That would be three home playoff games for those advancing that far)

My preference is for 16 teams, but the SEC wants the Playoff committee to decide most of the participants, thus the B1G will get hosed.

My Duck-Buddies, I appreciate Jon giving us a short summary of the Playoff options that the commissioners will be deciding upon soon, and invite your thoughts...

I'd prefer a sixteen team playoff with a sixteen team NIT playoff. Dan's format for home games and schedule that ends around New Year's Day. I'd also suggest that first round losers be eligible for bowl games if those still end up being a thing.

I think an NIT tournament would be cool so the rest of the country could be included in the fun and not just be for the same ten teams every year with a few sacrificial lambs thrown in.

Sixteen is about the maximum that most college football fans would want to see. Indiana vs. USC, Utah vs. Ohio State, Texas Tech vs. Texas, etc. would all be worth watching. Watching teams ranked lower than 16 would be like a mid-tier bowl game. Especially the way the SEC teams were falsely inflated this season.

1 hour ago, The Kamikaze Kid said:

I'd prefer a sixteen team playoff with a sixteen team NIT playoff. Dan's format for home games and schedule that ends around New Year's Day. I'd also suggest that first round losers be eligible for bowl games if those still end up being a thing. I think an NIT tournament would be cool so the rest of the country could be included in the fun and not just be for the same ten teams every year with a few sacrificial lambs thrown in.

It could also be fun that if teams lose in the playoff they have a losers bracket! The losers of each round of the main playoff get seeded into the following rounds of the losers bracket.

That wouldn't happen at all but it could be amusing for sure.

45 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

It could also be fun that if teams lose in the playoff they have a losers bracket! The losers of each round of the main playoff get seeded into the following rounds of the losers bracket.

That wouldn't happen at all but it could be amusing for sure.

The teams in the losers bracket would then have to play each other in the most humiliating bowl games like the New Mexico Bowl, Idaho Potatoes Bowl or the Dirty Myrtle Bowl.

1 hour ago, DrJacksPlaidPants said:

The teams in the losers bracket would then have to play each other in the most humiliating bowl games like the New Mexico Bowl, Idaho Potatoes Bowl or the Dirty Myrtle Bowl.

Or my favorite... the Clorox Bowl

Come on this needs to be a bowl game!!!

Sixteen teams is plenty, any more just waters it down. In a 24-team playoff, seeds 17-24 would have virtually zero chance of winning it all or even advancing to the quarterfinals.

I get where Petitti is coming from, in a 5+11 model ESPN (with their "advanced metrics") and the SEC can collude to stack the deck. With 24 teams and more AQs that becomes less likely.

The devil of course is in the details, a 5+11 model with an impartial committee would work just fine. No byes and the first two rounds played on campus. Bid out the semifinals and the natty, there's really no need to try and incorporate the bowl system anymore, it's become antiquated. The bowls could continue with P4 and G6 teams that didn't make the playoffs, there would still plenty of interest.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by noDucknewby

If it is going to make enough money to subsidize a G6 playoff, I say go to 24. We all know that 13-24 have no chance unless that team is like Miami was this year. I believe the 24 team format will preserve the sport. Big 12 and ACC teams can participate, and there really wouldn't be motivaton for the B1Gand SEC to further ruin the sport. The Playoffs should start the FIRST week of December, and THE ROSE BOWL SHOULD HOST EVERY TITLE GAME.

It has the best stadium, the best tradition and it is outside in the best weather.

The fans that won't like it are the fans that know those superfluous teams never had a shot, but at least they can say they reached the post season. End the Bowl games. There are too many anyway. An NIT style alternative playoff can replace the bowls. Tradition is dead. Long live tradition. College Football is a version of the NFL with high school aged to college aged players. Should have happened when we old geezers were kids. More Indianas of the world would be around, and the Blue Blood fans and their programs can now be forgotten. They paid for the players all along. We're already seeing the impact of their inability to hog all the talent.

I’m not sure any of these expanded play-off options would work towards the highest quality end product without serious thought given to reducing the number of regular season games.

This isn’t basketball; it’s football, and the majority of those that would be playing are not pro material in either talent or physical resiliency.

Injuries are always a major unknown, which is why we never mention them until they happen. But, we know what a factor they can be, and that just ratchets-up with the intensity of play-off mode.

Yes, injuries are part of the game; and yes, ‘next man up’ is an equally intriguing and exciting part of that. I’m just not convinced the majority of college teams are built to take the beating of some of these proposals without something giving way if the number of over all games weren’t limited.