College Football Playoff Field Doubles to 24 Teams for 2027

The College Football Playoff will expand to a 24-team field for the 2027 season, a structural change that removes conference championship games from the annual calendar. Sources told CBS Sports that the new format adopts a 19+4+1 model. This structure includes 19 at-large bids, four automatic slots for Power Four conference champions, and one bid reserved for the highest-ranked Group of Six team.

The change marks the end of an era for conference title games, which originated with the SEC in 1992. The SEC announced on Monday that its 2026 conference title game will be the final one. Last year’s SEC Championship between Alabama and Georgia drew an average of 16.9 million viewers, ranking as the seventh-most watched game of the season. The conference has estimated the annual revenue from these events at approximately $100 million.

To accommodate the larger bracket, the College Football Playoff is shifting the Heisman Trophy ceremony to the first weekend of December. In 2027, the award will be presented during the weekend of December 3 through 5. This timing fills the open week that follows the end of the regular season in late November. The playoff bracket will then begin during the first full week of December.

First- and second-round games will be played on the campuses of the host teams. Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will continue to take place in traditional bowl venues such as the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Cotton Bowl. The College Football Playoff stated that the expanded format will feature 16 on-campus games. This approach aims to bring playoff football to more local fan bases and provide a positive impact for campus communities.

The path to this decision involved more than a year of negotiation between the Big Ten and the SEC. The Big Ten initially pushed for a 24-team field, while SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey favored a 12- or 16-team structure to preserve his conference’s championship game. A 16-team format with five automatic bids and 11 at-large teams briefly gained traction among college sports executives. However, the ACC and Big 12 shifted their preference to the 24-team model by May conference meetings, leaving the SEC as the lone dissenter among power conferences.

A breakthrough occurred in September when both major conferences agreed to evaluate the larger bracket. Sankey outlined prerequisites in a memo, including offsetting the lost revenue from SEC championship games and requiring at least 10 regular-season games against power-conference opponents. The SEC’s transition to nine conference games, coupled with complaints from prominent coaches, appeared to influence the conference’s willingness to accept the 24-team format. With 20 spots available, teams with three or even four losses from the SEC will find it easier to secure a playoff berth.

Financial terms played a central role in the negotiations. CFP executives expected to seek between $70 million and $80 million more than the combined value of the conference championship games. The combined value of those games is nearly $250 million. This puts the potential additional annual rights fee at more than $320 million, on top of ESPN’s existing agreement. ESPN’s current contract averages $1.3 billion annually. The network holds rights to the ACC, Big 12, and SEC championship games and could redirect those fees toward the expanded playoff deal.

The College Football Playoff is currently in its third year of a 12-team format. The 2027 season will debut the doubled 24-team field. Ohio State won the national championship in the inaugural four-team playoff in 2014. The Buckeyes also won the title in 2024, the first year the field expanded to 12 teams.