The College Football Playoff’s new 24-team setup does more than widen the bracket. It also quietly changes how Colorado has to build its schedule.
The CFP and ESPN have agreed to a five-year deal reportedly worth nearly $1.7 billion that expands the postseason from 12 teams to 24 beginning in 2027. Under the new format, the four Power 4 champions and the top-ranked Group of 6 team get automatic bids, 19 at-large spots remain, and conference championship games disappear. That includes the Big 12 title game, which drew 85,519 fans to AT&T Stadium in December 2025.
Buried in the agreement is a scheduling requirement that matters plenty in Boulder. Every SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC team is expected to play at least 10 regular-season games against Power 4 opponents or Notre Dame to stay in the playoff mix.
That standard lines up awkwardly - or perfectly, depending on your view - with Colorado’s 2027 schedule. Because the Big 12 plays nine conference games, each member needs one Power 4 nonconference opponent. Colorado already has that piece in place.
The Buffaloes locked it in years ago, back when they were still in the Pac-12 and Mike MacIntyre was coaching the team. Then-athletic director Rick George set up a home-and-home with Northwestern.
Colorado already played the first game in Evanston in September, and the return trip is scheduled for Folsom Field on Sept. 11, 2027.
That matchup is the only thing keeping Colorado compliant in 2027. The rest of the nonconference slate includes FCS Colgate and Group of 6 Northern Illinois, so without Northwestern the Buffaloes would be sitting on nine Power 4 games and scrambling like several other programs.
Texas Tech and TCU, according to CBS Sports, will have to reshuffle their 2027 schedules to meet the same standard.
Colorado’s path to this point traces back to the move into the Big 12, which cost the program three nonconference series when Houston, Kansas State and Oklahoma State became league games overnight. George filled those openings with five home dates against Group of 5 and FCS opponents, saying the school "had an opportunity to take a new approach to scheduling" and betting that a lighter September would help clear a path to the playoff.
That logic still works in part, but the new rule puts a limit on it. One Power 4 opponent and two easier games still gets Colorado over the line, though the committee will not count a win over more than one FCS team in a season.
Deion Sanders was on board with the bigger field before the deal was finalized. "I would love 24.
I would love 24, that would be tremendous," Sanders said in a June interview. "If you would have had 24 teams a year ago, a multitude of teams from the Big 12 would have been participating in the playoffs."
His point has some backing from Colorado’s own recent results. The Buffaloes went 9-3 in 2024 and finished No. 23 in the final CFP rankings, which would have been enough to land one of the final at-large spots under the new model.
The long-range picture gets trickier once Colorado State enters the mix. The Rams now play in the rebuilt Pac-12, which is classified as a Group of 6 league, so the six Rocky Mountain Showdown games between 2029 and 2038 will not count toward the 10-game benchmark.
Colorado athletic director Fernando Lovo can keep that rivalry on the calendar, but any season with the Rams still requires another Power 4 opponent in one of the other two nonconference slots. A 10-game Big 12 schedule would simplify the whole equation, and commissioner Brett Yormark connected that possibility to playoff expansion at Big 12 media days.
"All those variables are interconnected, if you will, and we’ll address them when we need to," Yormark said at Big 12 media days on July 7.
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