ATHENS - ESPN is on the doorstep of landing the College Football Playoff’s jump from 12 teams to 24.
The network said a “handshake agreement” is already in place, though there’s still paperwork to be completed and final board approval to clear. Even with those loose ends, ESPN described the deal as “a major step closer” to being done for next season.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart has been one of the voices pushing for a bigger field.
“I think 24 teams is good for the fan bases,” Smart told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February. “I think when coaches and ADs look at it, we’re looking at our fan bases having an expectation that they want to be in the playoffs - it’s playoffs or bust.”
That’s the heart of the argument for expansion: more fan bases invested longer, and more coaches operating with the reality that playoff access shapes everything. Smart has also pointed out that non-playoff bowls carry far less weight now, and that a larger field brings financial upside for schools navigating multimillion-dollar payouts in the NIL era while still trying to use football revenue to support other non-revenue sports.
“Somewhere in there, you are giving out free inventory that maybe hasn’t been earned, maybe watering down the playoffs with more competitive games if you’re at 24 teams (in the playoffs),” Smart said. “But that’s the cost of doing business.”
The other side of the debate is familiar: critics worry a bigger playoff will chip away at the value of the regular season. But the source also notes that a wider field could make teams more willing to schedule aggressively, since there would be more room for error.
Right now, the opposite trend has taken hold. More schools have been backing away from marquee home-and-home non-conference games in order to protect their records and boost their chances of making the playoff.
A 24-team format would also bring a major structural change: the SEC championship game would be gone. Atlanta has hosted that title game since 1994, one year after it began in Birmingham, Alabama.
Georgia has played in eight of the last nine SEC championship games and heads into its 3:30 p.m. home matchup with Auburn on Saturday as the league’s only unbeaten team, sitting in position for what’s expected to be the final conference title game before expansion.
That change is part of what makes room for the extra weekend needed to run a bigger playoff. The regular season would also begin one week earlier so the College Football Playoff does not stretch too far into the new year.
The final format still has not been officially announced, but the most discussed version would give automatic bids to the Power 4 conference champions, as each league determines them, plus the highest-ranked Group of 6 team and 19 at-large selections based on CFP rankings.
The New Year’s Six bowls - Peach, Orange, Cotton, Rose, Fiesta and Sugar - would remain in the mix as quarterfinal and semifinal sites, while schools would host first-round games. The championship game would still be played in January.
ESPN reported that the average extra payment it will make for the expanded playoff is $345 million a year over the next five years, on top of the average $1.3 billion it already pays annually.
But that figure is not quite as steep as it first looks. Of the $345 million, ESPN would effectively be paying $205 million because it gets back $140 million each year with the cancellation of the three conference championship games it currently holds rights to broadcast.
There’s also a possible way for ESPN to recoup more of the cost. The network would have the option to sell some first-round playoff games to other outlets, much like what happens with the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which are expanding from 68 teams to 76 this season.
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He is not the only Bulldog sidelined, either. Chauncey Bowens, Isiah Canion, Thomas Blackshear, Amaris Williams and Tyriq Green are also listed out, giving Georgia a longer absentee list than it would prefer heading into a rivalry matchup. Auburns report did not bring any fresh movement, with Xavier Atkins, Tai Buster and Hunter Herring still unavailable as both teams work through a stretch where depth is being tested on both sides. [Read more 🡒]
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Georgia Faces One Auburn Worry Fans Cant Ignore
Georgia heads into its next SEC test riding the high of a win over Alabama and sitting at No. 1 in the AP Poll, but Auburn is the kind of opponent that can complicate a good week fast. The Tigers come in under new head coach Alex Golesh with a 3-2 record, and they get the trip to Athens with plenty of incentive to make the matchup uncomfortable for a team still trying to manage the wear and tear of a long season.
Georgias injury list is the part Bulldogs fans will watch most closely, with running back Chauncey Bowens and defensive back KJ Bolden among the players listed as injured or doubtful. Even with the top ranking and momentum on its side, Georgia is heading into this one with enough uncertainty to keep the attention fixed on availability as much as on the opponent across the field. [Read more 🡒]