NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
The Atlantic Coast Conference is backing the Big Ten’s push for a 24-team playoff, commissioner Jim Phillips said Wednesday.
Speaking at the end of three days of spring meetings at an upscale resort in northeast Florida, Phillips said ACC coaches and athletic directors agreed to double down on the current College Football Playoff model.
“When you leave national championship contending teams and schools out of the playoff, you don’t have the right numbers,” Phillips said. “We’ve lived through it.”
Phillips pointed to undefeated Florida State being snubbed from a four-team CFP field in 2023 and Notre Dame being left out of last year’s 12-team model.
“Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team this year; they just were,” he said. “The other reason is that there’s so much investment going on in the sport of football and in college athletics. … If you’re going to ask presidents and chancellors and boards to continue to invest in their football programs, it’s really important that they have hope that they have an opportunity at the beginning of the season to make the playoffs.”
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips has formally backed the Big Ten’s plans for a 24-team College Football Playoff. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Coaches and administrators have demanded more access to the lucrative and potentially job-saving playoffs. They point to having only 12 playoff spots for 138 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, a miniscule percentage compared to many other collegiate sports or major professional leagues.
“The more the merrier,” Florida State athletic director Michael Alford said. “The more opportunities to bring in teams and give student-athletes opportunities.”
Phillips also said that television partner ESPN “has been pretty clear to all of us that they would like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16.”
No matter how much the ACC and other leagues support a 24-team playoff, the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference have exclusive power to determine the CFP’s future. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti and the SEC’s Greg Sankey have the ultimate influence on any expansion.
The SEC is pushing to expand to 16 teams, with an emphasis on at-large bids. The Big Ten supports 24 teams and originally wanted multiple automatic qualifiers from each conference.
[2026 College Football Preview: The Biggest Question Facing Top Teams]
The playoffs expanded from four to 12 teams in 2024, and after decision makers failed to reach an expansion agreement, the CFP will use the same model for the 2026-27 season. The discussion has major implications for the college football calendar, including the start and end of the season and the role of conference championship games in making money.
An NCAA committee recommended last month that FBS teams play a 12-game schedule over 14 weeks beginning in 2027, with the season starting on the Thursday of what is now termed Week Zero and ending the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Last week, the American Football Coaches Association proposed changes to the schedule that included eliminating conference championship games, reducing scheduled bye weeks from two to one and reducing the minimum number of days between games to no fewer than six.
Sankey earlier this week was adamant about expanding to a 16-team CFP.
Sankey said any changes in college athletics must come with proper research — something he believes the SEC has provided in support of a four-team expansion to 16. For Sankey, moving to 16 teams is an unknown, with a big question about whether an expanded playoff would make up for an SEC title game that generates more than $80 million a year for the powerhouse conference.
The current CFP contract includes a deadline of December 1, 2026 to make changes for the following season.
Report from the Associated Press.
