It’s coming, and it sounds like it could be a mess.
The moving target that is the College Football Playoff just keeps on churning. From a four-team to a 12-team with auto-bids to now a 12-teamer that’s straight-seeded — what’s next?
You probably can figure it out.
A 16-team format has been rumored since before the 12-team look even debuted. That possibility was discussed by SEC coaches and commissioner Greg Sankey this week in Destin at the spring meetings.
“They talked about — I’ll call it a 5+11 model — and our own ability to earn those berths,” Sankey said at the conclusion of the second day of spring meetings. “… At the coaching level, the question is, why wouldn’t that be fine? Why wouldn’t we do that? We talked about 16 with them. So, good conversation, not a destination, but the first time I’ve had the ability to go really in depth with ideas with them.” (ESPN)
The SEC and Big Ten have proposed a field that would feature four automatic bids from each of their own conferences, then two from the ACC, two from the Big 12, one from the group of five and then three at-large spots for any other team.
With the nine-game conference schedule inevitably coming, athletic directors want assurance that they’ll have a spot in the bracket despite the tougher schedule.
Other ideas that have been tossed around include a 14-team system with the same 4-4-2-2-1 auto-bids, but just one at-large instead of three.
Play-in games for the auto-bids, or even conference tournaments have also been tossed around. Keeping the conference title games relevant is a big part of these talks for all conferences, and it’s something that is becoming increasingly harder to do with the expanded playoff — hence the tournament/play-in game ideas.
According to ESPN, the SEC coaches preferred sticking with the five conference champion auto-bid structure with 11 at-large teams. That seems logical to get the best 16 teams in, but logic hasn’t exactly won out with these playoff talks in the past. It’s all about the money, and it’s pretty clear that the SEC and Big Ten are going to push hard for their concrete spots.
In the meeting room, sources told ESPN, it appeared that the athletic directors were focused on nine SEC games and a model with four automatic qualifiers. The coaches voiced strongly that they wanted a model with five automatic qualifiers and 11 at-larges, with a preference to stay at an eight-game league schedule. (ESPN)
According to SEC ADs, the answer to why a 5+11 would not be “fine” is that:
1) SEC would’t move to 9 conference games
2) SEC couldn’t hold the long-discussed play-in games
3) reliance on the selection committee— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 27, 2025
So now that we’ve got a simple, straight-seeded College Football Playoff system, it sounds like it’s going back to being a complete mess in 2026. Let’s hope not.
The deadline for the 2026 structure is set for December with the current bowl agreements set to expire after the 2025 season.