The College Football Playoff is nearing another expansion, with an informal agreement between playoff officials and ESPN that would increase the field to 24 teams, according to sources familiar with negotiations cited in the report. The proposal would add 11 games and bring ESPN’s annual payment for the rights to those games to an additional $345 million.
The agreement is not final. The source report says it still requires approval signatures and final votes before the next version of the postseason is settled. It describes the negotiations as having focused over the past month on financial terms following ESPN’s final offer.
The proposed arrangement would also end conference championship games after this season. Over a five-year period, ESPN would pay leagues to exit marketing agreements and compensate them for revenue tied to conference title weekends, according to the report. The Big Ten would leave an agreement with Fox, with ESPN expected to pay Fox more than $60 million per year, sources told the publication.
The move would mark a substantial increase from the 12-team playoff format that committee members approved three years ago. At the time, a 24-team field was not widely treated as an imminent possibility, the report says. Discussion of further expansion grew amid rising college-sports costs, including revenue-sharing and name, image and likeness spending, as well as financial deficits at some major-conference schools.
The report says the SEC had pushed for a 16-team format during earlier discussions, while the Big Ten maintained that a 24-team field was preferable. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti was described as a leading advocate for the larger playoff. The ACC and Big 12 also supported the concept, according to the article, on the grounds that it could give their teams additional opportunities to play meaningful games late in the season and offer a more direct route to the playoff.
Supporters’ case for expansion, as presented in the report, is that a larger field would give more schools a chance to compete for the national championship. The report also frames the proposed increase as a response to the high costs programs face in assembling competitive rosters. It does not provide a final playoff bracket, selection rules, or the full distribution of the additional revenue.
The financial terms and format remain subject to formal approval. The reported agreement would also reshape the postseason calendar by removing conference championship games, making the tradeoffs broader than simply adding playoff teams. The source does not identify which officials will cast the final votes or when those decisions are expected.
