NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Go ahead and get used to it now: The debate over expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Sitting inside Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea’s office on Wednesday, it wasn’t hard to notice the ongoing chatter that has now reared its head again.
Ever since CFP leaders wrapped up meetings in Miami — before Indiana capped a historic season with a national championship — the battle between the SEC and the rest of college football has only intensified, with the latest gathering taking place just outside of Dallas.
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At the center of it all is one question: how big should the playoffs really be?
For months, the SEC has stood firmly behind a 16-team format, a model that its television partner ESPN supports. Meanwhile, the Big Ten has been pushing for 24 teams — an idea that initially drew opposition from the ACC and Big 12 before opinions began to shift.
It is nothing new. Conference commissioners changing positions is practically part of the job. But this time the stakes are higher. With revenue-sharing challenges mounting across college athletics — and some schools already cutting sports — the expansion of the playoffs has become a potential financial lifeline.
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Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips speaks during an NCAA college football news conference at ACC media days in Charlotte, NC, on July 20, 2022. (Nell Redmond/AP)
More teams means more matches. More games means more TV storage. And more inventory might mean more money.
As the new College Football Playoff contract with ESPN kicks in, which is a six-year deal, there are a number of teams that could essentially trigger additional bids. According to industry sources, if the CFP were to agree to a 14-team postseason, ESPN would still hold onto its inventory of games that they could continue to sublicense to networks like TNT or TBS.
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But if CFP executives were to somehow agree to the 24-team format, or even 16 teams, this would allow networks like FOX, NBC or CBS to join the party if they were willing to pay. This stems from the contract signed by ESPN and the CFP, which would allow the playoffs to put the extra games that would come from a 24-team postseason on the market.
And while that may be the case, from a financial standpoint, the smarter move would be for ESPN to simply buy the rights to the extra games in a 16-team playoff, since it might not be worth the price for FOX or NBC to buy the additional two matchups.
Although it’s not hard to see why there would be more conferences on board.
It’s not that easy. Conference title games replaced by play-in matchups?
As Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea pointed out this week in Nashville, expansion isn’t as simple as adding more teams.
“The first thing we have to focus on is when we finish the season,” Clark Lea told OutKick. “I think we have a real problem right now, and I think the problem is tied to television contracts and dedicated time slots where we don’t compete with the NFL and stuff like that, extending our season three weeks into January, which absolutely undermines the integrity of what we’re trying to do as a sport.
“Whatever we do next with the playoffs, expansion is coming. We (SEC) all expected it for this year and it hit a hiccup. But as expansion comes, it can’t come at the expense of being mindful of the end of the season and let’s be more sensible about tying it.”
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Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops and Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea meet on the field after an NCAA college football game in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 22, 2025. (George Walker IV/AP)
As OutKick reported over the past year, a playoff expansion of this magnitude could also come with the caveat that conference title games would cease to exist. While this may sound like an easy fix to some, it’s a much bigger concept to pull off given the amount ESPN and FOX are paying for these title games, with both games receiving a reported $160 million for their title games combined.
“We’re going to have to let go of some traditional ends of the year in college football,” Clark Lea said, while also noting that he ‘thinks’ it would be a conference championship.
So what replaces them?
“Somehow the playoff model is incorporated, right?” Lea offered. “Otherwise, this (season) drags on forever. I think last year we saw these ridiculous breaks in the game that I think destroy the competitive product on the field. I’d be really interested in hearing answers and getting people to think about those things.
“How do we improve the product, tighten up the season? Closing closer to the end of the semester, the portal window. Now suddenly we have a better product.”
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Coaches become fans in these expansion conversations
The idea of repackaging an SEC, Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 championship weekend into play-in games for each conference is one that television networks like ESPN and FOX have at least discussed.
Considering that they would give up a game to make money in the form of advertising and ratings, the replacement should be enticing enough to consider.
But if you were to ask fans whether they’d rather see four teams battle it out in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Charlotte or Dallas over a two-day period for a spot in the College Football Playoff, I’d imagine it would be an easy sell to networks and advertisers alike.
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Even then, deciding on a route is not easy.
“Those decisions have to be made based on driving as much revenue as possible and getting the best possible negotiation out of every game we have. So saying 24 or 16 is really just saying as many teams as we can while not giving the opportunity to negotiate what those games can bring us.
Head coach Clark Lea of the Vanderbilt Commodores thanks fans after beating the Missouri Tigers at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 25, 2025. (Carly Mackler/Getty Images)
At the end of the day, people just want to see the sport of college football come to the best possible place, which includes the coaches competing for spots like Clark Lea.
“What we do when we start to engage in these conversations is we become fans. I know it’s much more complex than just adding as many teams as possible. This has to be done in the best way to optimize our product and to generate the revenue we need to sustain our sport.”
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While SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is essentially on an island by himself in terms of pushing a 16-team format over a jump to 24, we’re starting to hear his coaches in the conference begin to voice their differing opinions on what the future should actually look like.
While that may be the case, the coaches only carry so much weight in these conversations, as I discussed on Wednesday.
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Either way, spring meetings in college football became much more important over the past two years, with the Big Ten meeting next week in Los Angeles while the SEC prepares to meet after Memorial Day in Florida.
Let the games continue.
