Before I begin lobbying on behalf of a 24-team college football (CFB) playoff (PO), allow me to present the 2026-27 24-team PO field determined by using The Sporting News 2026 Composite Preseason Top 25.

The Composite Ranking is a compilation of preseason top 25s from The Sporting News, Athlon, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Yahoo Sports, and On3. Ten of the most popular CFB sites.

One comment before posting the field. What Tony Petitti and the Big Ten propose is actually a 16-team PO field with eight first-round play-in games. Think of a 64-team basketball field with four play-in games.

The 24-team format, which no longer includes automatic qualifiers, will deliver a far less controversial playoff field. Of course, the fans of the team ranked twenty-five will witch, thus be it ever.

The eighth teams with a first-round bye will, depending on the calendar, be idle for only seven to ten days.

Let's end or at least reduce the subjectivity that comes from having to determine a PO from twelve disparate data points, and through a mirror looking darkly.

In 2025, the 3-loss team that should have been in the playoff field was Texas and not Alabama. Texas was not rewarded for playing a marquee out-of-conference (OOC) game at Ohio State. 3-loss Alabama was not penalized for losing an OOC game to a bad Florida State team.

Then, there was 11-2 BYU. Both losses were to No. 4 Texas Tech. Alabama's conference champ game loss did not matter to the committee. BYU's loss made a multi-million-dollar difference to the B12.

To the field:

16 Alabama vs. 17 SMU - Tuscaloosa, Alabama - Winner plays No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio

15 Ole Miss vs. 18 Utah - Oxford, Mississippi - Winner plays No. 2 Texas in Austin, Texas

14 Michigan vs. 19 Louisville - Ann Arbor, Michigan - Winner plays No 3 Georgia in Athens, Georgia

13 USC vs 21 Iowa - Los Angeles, CA. - Winner plays No. 4 Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana

12 LSU vs 20 Penn State - Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Winner plays No. 5 Oregon in Eugene, Oregon

(Under the proposed format, there would be no 1st-round rematch games. Accordingly, USC, which played Penn State in the regular season, would play 21 Iowa, and LSU would play 20 Penn State)

11 BYU vs 22 Washington - Provo, Utah - Winner plays No 6 Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana

10 Oklahoma vs 23 Houston - Norman, Oklahoma - Winner plays No 7 Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas

9 Miami vs No. 24 G6 representative - Miami Gardens, Florida - (G6 representative knocks out 24 Missouri.) Winner plays No 8 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

A review of the bidding -

Group of 6 - One team in, but come December, two G6 teams would likely be in the field playing 1st-round opponents. This would give the G6 teams a better chance to advance to the 2nd-round.

No need to send the paramedics to South Bend; Notre Dame is in.

ACC - Three teams in the field: Louisville, Miami, and SMU - One first-round home game - Two more teams than were in the 2025-26 playoffs.

B12 - Three teams in the field: BYU, Utah, and Texas Tech - One first-round bye - Two more teams than were in the 2025-26 playoffs. One home game.

SEC - Seven teams in the field: Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A&M - Three 1st-round byes - Seven home games. Two more teams than were in the 2025-26 playoffs.

Big Ten - Eight teams in the field: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, USC, Washington. Three first-round byes. Five home games. Five more teams than were in the 2025-26 playoffs. (Hey, it's Tony's plan, right?)

All of the G6 and Power 4 conferences would benefit financially from this format. Fox, CBS, and NBC would join the PO broadcast bidding.

Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks estimates that the CFB postseason revenue would at least double.

In addition, under this format, more money would flow from better out-of-conference matchups. The B1G and the SEC will compete in a Volleyball Challenge in 2026; why not a football challenge?

Flex-scheduled end of the regular season conference championship and 'playoff play-in games', matching three versus six and four versus five, would also increase the value of a conference's college football game inventory.

In today's college football world of mega-conferences with all conference teams matching up over a number of seasons, NIL, and largely unregulated transfers, these flex-scheduled games, while bringing in more money, would provide in-conference scheduling equity.

The B1G's proposal, now also recommended by the NCAA, would have the season uniformly begin in Week Zero, with the playoff beginning and ending two weeks earlier than now, and also reduce PO games competing against NFL postseason games.

A third and even a fourth loss in football (unless you're Bama) will not destroy a team and its fans' playoff hopes.

Last season, four-loss Iowa defeated 10-2 Vanderbilt in a terrific bowl game. This game would have been worthy of a 1st-round game, a game that would have drawn millions more viewers than watched the Whatever Bowl.

In 2025-26, two-loss Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, BYU, and Utah, three-loss Texas, USC, Illinois, and four-loss Iowa in a 24-team playoff would not have rocked or destroyed the very foundation of college football.

College sports have to find access to additional money. I do not want to see the ACC and the B12 disappear. I do not want to see non-revenue sports disappear.

I'm tired of Tony Petitti's playoff format being dumped on because it will supposedly destroy the regular season.

Horse Hockey! In my seven decades of following college sports, I cannot count the number of times expanding a playoff field would ruin the regular season. It hasn't happened, and it will not happen if a 24-team playoff field is adopted.

If the NCAA and not a broadcast entity managed the Division 1 football postseason, we would have a 24-team, at least, college football playoff.

All those out there, including myriad college football journalists, bemoaning the destruction of college football tradition, I ask you: What tradition is left?

If the CFB (and CBB) inventory is not further capitalized by expanding the playoff, what do you suggest to stave off a Super Conference, a Group of 8, and many non-revenue sports becoming club sports?

I'm hearing crickets.

"...four-loss Iowa defeated 10-2 Vanderbilt in a terrific bowl game

four losses sounds like a lot but sometimes fate lays a blow

Iowa in 2025

L 13-16 at Iowa St - ISU FG with 1:52 left

L 15-20 vs Indiana - Hoosiers got a TD with 1:28 left

L 16-18 vs Oregon - Ducks FG with 0:03 left

L 21-26 at USC in a rain deluge