Lane Kiffin isn’t hiding where he stands on college football’s next big playoff shift.
Speaking on a Zoom call with reporters Sunday, the LSU head coach backed expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams, arguing that the SEC’s move to a nine-game conference schedule has made a larger field necessary.
“When the decision was made by the league to go to nine games, in my opinion, I felt we have to go to 24,” Kiffin said.
His case is simple: the SEC’s grind will produce more teams that look playoff-worthy even if they don’t finish with eye-popping records. In Kiffin’s view, the current 12-team setup risks shutting out teams that would stack up well against anyone.
“We're going to have seasons with a lot of nine-win teams that may be really good teams. And so you need to go to 24, or else you're just going to knock out teams that might be really good.”
Kiffin also said the bigger bracket would ease the pressure of comparing teams from different schedules and different levels of difficulty.
“I think my point of going 24 was just gives you a better chance to get the right teams in,” Kiffin said. “This way it's not such a big deal who's 11 and 12 and who did you play and all that, and trying to compare teams with totally different strength of schedules.”
He was also asked about conference championship games and whether they still serve a purpose for teams chasing a national title. Kiffin did not call for the SEC Championship Game to disappear, but he did question whether one more high-stakes, physical game is actually the best setup for a playoff push.
“Yes, it's neat, and it's great to win the SEC and have a banner and that, but the value of where that puts you in the position to make the strongest run in the playoffs,” Kiffin said.
“People say battle-tested. No, no, you want to be in the best shape as you get in the playoffs from a health standpoint.”
To Kiffin, the issue is less about the prestige of winning a conference title and more about what it does to a team’s body right before the postseason.
“It’s just the dynamics of whether you want to be in it or not, to me, have changed,” Kiffin said.
The 24-team format is expected to start next season. ESPN reported that the field would include 19 at-large bids, the Power 4 conference champions as determined by each league and the highest-ranked Group of 6 team.
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