The Drought is Over
Caleb Downs scores Ohio State’s first punt return touchdown since 2014.
Before the first 12-team playoff has even been played, the College Football Playoff is likely to expand again.
The 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame agreed to a new CFP contract on Friday that will increase the revenue share for the Big Ten and SEC and will likely lead to a 14-team playoff starting in 2026.
Per ESPN’s Heather Dinich and Pete Thamel, the memorandum of understanding signed by the conferences guarantees that the CFP will continue to have at least 12 teams in 2026, but the expectation is that the playoff will expand to 14 teams. The exact format has not yet been determined, but ESPN’s sources indicated “there is a strong preference for a 14-team field that includes the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next nine highest-ranked teams.”
The new contract guarantees that the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 champions and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion will all receive berths in the playoff.
Both the Big Ten and SEC will benefit greatly from the new revenue sharing model. Both leagues will be distributed more than $21 million per school in the CFP under the new agreement, while the ACC will be around $13 million and the Big 12 and Notre Dame both around $12 million. Group of 5 schools will receive a revenue distribution of just under $1.8 million, per ESPN’s report.
To quell some pushback from non-Big Ten and SEC schools, the agreed-upon framework contains a “look-in” clause for 2028 that allows the lesser conferences and Notre Dame to reevaluate their contractual agreements relative to CFP performance.
The CFP will continue under its current 12-team format with five automatic bids to the top five conference champions in 2024 and 2025.
