The College Football Playoff is changing course in 2026, and that matters for Memphis and the rest of the Group of Six.
The biggest shift is simple: the playoff field will now include the champions of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12, plus the highest-ranked team from the Group of Six. That means the road for Memphis, an American Conference member, is now clearly defined.
There’s also an important wrinkle. The Group of Six team no longer has to be a conference champion to get in. In other words, a team could still reach the playoff even if it loses its conference title game.
That is a departure from the previous setup, when five spots were set aside for the highest-ranked conference champions. In 2025, that structure got messy fast.
An unusual ACC tiebreaker procedure helped Duke win the league with five losses, and that opened the door for both Tulane and James Madison to make the 12-team field. Both were knocked out in the first round.
James Madison’s case showed the oddity of the old system even more clearly. The Dukes finished 12-1 and won the Sun Belt title, yet they were still slotted behind Duke because of the way the rankings shook out.
That kind of scenario won’t happen again under the updated format, which was unveiled on Aug. 6.
The new setup brings more clarity to the race for the Group of Six spot, because teams outside the power conferences are essentially chasing their own lane. An at-large berth for a Group of Six team remains extremely unlikely.
The first CFP rankings of the season will be released on Nov. 3.
In Other News...
Boise States Stadium Debut Comes With A Memphis Threat Fans Should Note
Memphis is headed to Albertsons Stadium for Boise States first home game of the 2026 season, and it is arriving with the kind of roster overhaul that can make early-season scouting a moving target. First-year coach Charles Huff has brought plenty of familiar faces and staff influence over from Southern Miss, but the Tigers will still look dramatically different than the team fans saw a year ago, with changes spread across both sides of the ball.
The most important subplot for Memphis may be how quickly the new pieces settle in, especially at the games most important position. Huff has a quarterback competition underway as the Tigers sort through a rebuilt depth chart, and with so much turnover around that battle, Boise State will be getting its first real look at just how much upside this Memphis group can bring onto the blue turf. [Read more 🡒]
Memphis Schedule Is Taking Shape Around An Early Dayton Test
Memphis is starting to get a clearer picture of its 2026-27 calendar, and the first nonconference measuring stick on the board is a solid one. The Tigers are set to meet Dayton on Nov. 29, 2026, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, in the Atlantic 10/American Conference Showcase, a neutral-site matchup that should tell plenty about where Penny Hardaways team stands before league play begins.
The broader schedule already has the familiar layers of a modern major-program season, with 14 nonconference games, 18 American Conference games and a trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Between the showcase date and the tournament setting, Memphis will get a chance to see how its roster handles travel, atmosphere and high-end competition long before the conference grind settles in. [Read more 🡒]