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After months of speculation surrounding a 24-team College Football Playoff model, all eyes now shift to next week’s SEC spring meetings, where one of college football’s most powerful conferences could ultimately decide the future of the sport’s postseason.
FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt spent this week at the Big Ten spring meetings in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., where CFP expansion dominated conversations among coaches, athletic directors and conference leaders. According to Klatt, the takeaway from these meetings was clear: the support for a 24-team playoff is much stronger than many originally thought.
While the Big Ten has been discussing expansion options for months now, commissioner Tony Petitti publicly offered his strongest support yet this week for a 24-team CFP format.
The latest proposed model would eliminate automatic qualification in favor of a selection-based format with the 23 highest-placed teams and a group of 6 representatives. That framework has recently gained traction across the ACC and Big 12, both of which have shown support for the proposal.
But despite the growing momentum, the spotlight now turns to the SEC, which will hold its annual spring meetings in Destin, Florida. According to Klatt, these meetings could become one of the most decisive moments yet in the debate on the extension of the common fisheries policy.
“I had several coaches tell me that 90% of the coaches in the SEC and 100% of the athletic directors in the SEC favor a 24-team model for CFP expansion,” Klatt said in a clip released from an upcoming episode of “The Joel Klatt Show.”
That goes against the belief that the SEC strongly opposed a 24-team model. In fact, Klatt said there is a growing sense in Big Ten circles that next week’s SEC meetings could feature significant disagreement.
“That makes this next week in Destin so interesting because there’s a feeling, at least among the Big Ten coaches, that the meetings between Greg Sankey — the commissioner of the SEC — and his coaches are going to be contentious,” Klatt said.
Support for the 24-team model has continued to grow beyond just the Power 4 conferences. The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), a highly influential group of coaches in college football, has also endorsed the proposal. That group includes Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, arguably the most influential coach in the SEC and one of the sport’s most powerful voices.
That’s why next week’s meetings in Destin could be a turning point for the future of college football.
“The coaches will push for one thing, and Greg [Sankey] have publicly stated something very different,” Klatt said. “They may not have a consensus down there in those rooms.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and members of his conference could soon approve expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
Ultimately, though, the final decision won’t rest solely with coaches or conference commissioners.
As Klatt pointed out, college presidents have the ultimate say. Sankey, who has served as a commissioner of the SEC since 2015, works for the president of the SEC.
“If the athletic director and the coaches get their presidents on board, Greg Sankey isn’t going to fend off all his bosses,” Klatt said. “He has 16 bosses in the SEC.”
Petitti indicated this week that if the SEC were to support the 24-team format, implementation could happen as early as the 2027 season.
Whether Sankey and the SEC can reach an agreement remains unclear. But after months of speculation, the center of the college football world is shifting to Destin, where the next chapter of CFP expansion could take shape.
