Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Our Beloved Ducks Forum

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

24 Team Playoff Finalized for Five Seasons Beginning in 2027

Featured Replies

  • Moderator
No.

A 24-team playoff beginning next season and through 2031 has been inked.

ESPN retains exclusive broadcast rights but will no doubt sublicense some of the early games.

The top 8 seeds will have a 1st-round bye. 1st and second-round games will be played on campus. Seeding will be adjusted to prevent regular-season rematches in the first round.

Quarter-final and semi-final games will continue to be played in the six bowls in use today. I imagine many of today's bowl games will disappear.

This will be the last season that conference championship games, if not played in the final week of the regular season, will be played. The weekend reserved for these games is now reserved for the Army-Navy game. Notre Dame will not have special access to the playoffs. One place is reserved for a G6 team if it is not in the top 24.

Hats off to Tony Petitti for weathering the slings and arrows of 24-team playoff naysayers, the entire world of CFB outside the Big Ten not so long ago, and delivering a format that makes sense for the Big Ten conference.

On3
No image preview

College Football Playoff expands to 24 teams after new ES...

https://youtube.com/live/qw8hsflXBvo?feature=share After months of speculation and discussion, College Football Playoff expansion is officially happening.
  • Administrator
No.

College Football Playoff expands to 24 teams after new ESPN media rights deal
On3
No image preview

College Football Playoff expands to 24 teams after new ES...

https://youtube.com/live/qw8hsflXBvo?feature=share After months of speculation and discussion, College Football Playoff expansion is officially happening.

  • Author
  • Moderator
No.

More on the end of conference championship games.

BTW, if OBD and SC win out and UCLA's only loss is to SC, can the Oregon vs. UCLA championship game be relocated from Indianapolis to Vegas?

In Indy, there would be many fans disguised as empty seats.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/24-team-college-football-playoff-163735829.html

No.

Booooo! on the 24-team playo$$. Hello to worthless regular seasons.

No.

Agreed!!!

  • Administrator
No.

I politely disagree with you both; the regular season will have TONS more teams interested and shooting for a Playoff spot, and it will make a bunch of close games crucial for all parties involved. With the SEC bias, it helps to have more space in the Playoffs for more Big-10 teams to get into it.

Make the top eight and have a Playoff home game? Cool!

Mr. OBD

No.
5 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

I politely disagree with you both; the regular season will have TONS more teams interested and shooting for a Playoff spot, and it will make a bunch of close games crucial for all parties involved. With the SEC bias, it helps to have more space in the Playoffs for more Big-10 teams to get into it.

Make the top eight and have a Playoff home game? Cool!

I would be more inclined to appreciate the new format if the conferences weren't 16-18 teams deep. I'd give anything to see this format with 8 regional conferences 8-10 teams deep with automatic bids given to each champion with fixed seeding and fewer at-large teams.

Think back to the Big 10, Pac 10, SEC, SWC, ACC, Big East, Big 8, and WAC. It's a shame that we finally got here, but we're stuck with wildly unbalanced (Power 2), Frankenstein conferences.

Where I could get on board psychologically, is if I squint hard enough and just pretend that the first two rounds of the playoffs are just an extension of the regular season and a play-in tournament to the actual 8 team playoff - which may have been the perfect number the entire time.

No.

I'm into it. The more years Oregon makes the playoffs, the more seasons won't be "lost".

The more chances to finally get a natty.

Double the spots and the placeholder for the group of whatever team doesn't seem so bad. They might even win a playoff game.

I believe this deal got made when the SEC made the commitment to play 9 conf games.

No.
1 hour ago, mikethehiker said:

I would be more inclined to appreciate the new format if the conferences weren't 16-18 teams deep. I'd give anything to see this format with 8 regional conferences 8-10 teams deep with automatic bids given to each champion with fixed seeding and fewer at-large teams.

Think back to the Big 10, Pac 10, SEC, SWC, ACC, Big East, Big 8, and WAC. It's a shame that we finally got here, but we're stuck with wildly unbalanced (Power 2), Frankenstein conferences.

Where I could get on board psychologically, is if I squint hard enough and just pretend that the first two rounds of the playoffs are just an extension of the regular season and a play-in tournament to the actual 8 team playoff - which may have been the perfect number the entire time.

I agree with you. I believe the fans want more regional and traditional matchups. But I suspect the SEC is hiding in their region and would face some serious shock when they face teams they aren't used to. Ole Miss comes to mind. They can't hide behind the SEC shield because Louisville dropped 38 on them. Four points less than Georgia.

I prefer 12 teams. But I am not backing that until the SEC proves they are worthy of this bias they've been getting for two decades. Of course, ESPN does the nation no favors. I respect Georgia, Bama and Tennessee. Love Stein's Wildcats, but they are only slightly better than the other five ranked teams in the group, and they all are way overrated.

No.
57 minutes ago, Mike West said:

But I suspect the SEC is hiding in their region and would face some serious shock when they face teams they aren't used to.

That has been one nice thing about the 12 team playoff. The SEC has been completely exposed going 3-6 against non-SEC opponents in two postseasons (Texas over Clemson, ASU in '24 and Ole Miss over Tulane in '25).

Create an account or sign in to comment

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.