With less than a month until the 2026 college football season begins, the sport’s biggest power brokers remain divided on expanding the College Football Playoff.
The Big Ten’s football media days wrapped in Chicago on Thursday, concluding four consecutive weeks of preseason previews for the Power 4 and most other FBS conferences. Week 0 games will be played on Aug. 29 before Week 1 games begin Sept. 3 ahead of Labor Day weekend.
Throughout the various summer conference gatherings, leaders across the Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC all reiterated their support for an expanded 24-team CFP model—double the number of schools in the current 12-team playoff structure that will enter its third season this fall. There is a fast-approaching Dec. 1 deadline to decide on expanding the CFP for the 2027 season.
“We’re trying to do this together,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said Tuesday. “I think there’s been a lot of movement among coaches and ADs around the country that 24 is the right number, but we have to see if it has the right value.”
And while Petitti said he has “never heard” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey “say that he won’t do the work and consider 24” teams for the CFP, the split between the country’s top two conferences is what’s keeping another round of expansion from being greenlit. The Big Ten and SEC control the decision-making power on the CFP management committee—the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua—and must agree on any future format changes.
