By Elijah Klepczyk
Sports Columnist
Over the weekend, ESPN and the College Football Playoff reached an agreement to expand the playoff field to 24 teams for the 2027 season, marking one of the most controversial decisions made in college football history.
There is a big debate on whether this change is good or bad for the sport, and an even bigger debate surrounding the motives behind it.
The pro-24 team crowd argues that the change brings more impactful games to the college football sphere.
Ever since the conception of the 12-team playoff, fans have loved the home field playoff games, where a higher-seeded team gets to host a postseason game. These environments are electric, giving fans a chance to live and die with their teams right where they have been supporting them all season.
For years, one of the biggest knocks on the CFB postseason has been its lifeless settings — bowl games in half‑empty, rented stadiums or neutral‑site NFL fields that inevitably favored one side. Whatever the location, the vibe always felt off.
The new 24‑team playoff format hopes to solve that dilemma by injecting more home‑field playoff games into the bracket — intentionally creating the electric, high‑stakes environments fans have wanted for years. In theory, it sounds ideal.
But, as with most ideas that sound perfect at first glance, a closer examination exposes a problem: we already have versions of these home‑field playoff games today, just without the CFP brand slapped on them. It's called the regular season.
Almost no other sport in all of the world draws as much attention in the regular season as college football does. Most fans of these sports only really tune in to the postseason, that is where all the stakes are at – which in theory creates the best product.
College football had something beautiful, where every single week mattered and one loss could end your season. It was basically like watching 12 playoff games every week of every season – now that feeling is in jeopardy.
Take this past weekend for example, one of the most chaotic weekends that comes to recent memory. Teams like BYU, Auburn, and Tennessee – even Florida were all playing with their seasons on the line and had to overcome incredible odds – and did it. Teams like Indiana, Texas, Georgia, and Alababma experienced heart-break like no other and now their seasons are in jeopardy over one lousy loss.
With a 24-team playoff this goes away, teams like Georgia and Indiana will look at these games and shrug them off as “off-days,” and since they are already firmly in the top-25, a major disaster would have to befall them for them not to make the postseason.
That does not help the sport, it destroys it. College football is dangerously close to becoming like college basketball, where most fans only tune into the tournament and don't watch a single regular season game. Why watch if the outcomes don’t really matter?
The silver lining – this is not set in cement yet. Final board approvals still need to be pushed through, so there is some hope amongst fans that it could be squashed – an outcome many fans want.
Many national pundits stood their ground over the weekend, speaking out against this playoff expansion that nobody asked for. While there are some that want it, the overwhelming majority don’t – and hopefully for once the CFP committee will listen to the voices of the people that cash their checks.
