Eli Drinkwitz is all for giving more schools a shot at the College Football Playoff. He just doesn’t trust the people who would be doing the deciding.
The Missouri coach, speaking on Day 1 of SEC Media Days in Tampa alongside Kentucky’s Will Stein, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, weighed in on the possibility of the CFP growing from 12 teams to 16. His stance was clear: widen the door, but don’t hand the keys to a committee.
“I am for expanded opportunities for schools in the playoffs,” Drinkwitz said. “You have 138 Division I-playing schools. We have to have more opportunities for access.”
Then he drew a hard line on who should be making those calls.
“I am not for giving the committee more opportunities to put people in the playoffs,” Drinkwitz added. “Committees are a bad idea.”
The playoff expansion conversation has already hit a wall once in 2026. Momentum had been building, but it stalled when the SEC and Big Ten couldn’t get on the same page about both the size of the field and the path into it.
The SEC wants 16 teams and backs a 5+11 format, with five automatic qualifiers for major conference champions and 11 at-large bids. The Big Ten, meanwhile, is pushing for a 24-team playoff and a model that would eliminate conference champions from the qualification process.
For now, the 12-team format is still the plan. The first-round games are scheduled for Dec. 18-19 on campus sites, and the CFP title game is set for Jan. 25, 2027 in Las Vegas.
In Other News...
Kyle Field Just Became A Question Aggies Never Wanted Asked
Kyle Field has spent more than a century growing from a modest campus venue into one of college footballs defining stages, and Texas A&M has treated its name as part of the place itself. Built in 1905 and expanded through wave after wave of renovations, the stadium has long carried the weight of Aggie tradition, with the name tied to E.J. Kyle and protected as a piece of the programs identity even as the building around it changed.
That history only gets louder when you look at what happened in the last decade, when the 2013 Board of Regents approved a $450 million redevelopment that was finished for the 2015 season and left Kyle Field as the largest stadium in the SEC. It is a venue built to keep growing without losing its sense of self, which is why any conversation about what it should be called lands with extra force around College Station, even if the answer remains more complicated than the question. [Read more 🡒]
Jimbo Fisher Just Reopened An Uncomfortable Texas A&M Conversation
Mike Elko has given Texas A&M a much steadier run since taking over after Jimbo Fishers dismissal, and the numbers have backed that up. In two seasons, Elko has guided the Aggies to a 19-7 record, capped by an 11-2 campaign and a College Football Playoff appearance, a stretch that has helped the program move on from the turbulence that followed Fishers six-year tenure.
Still, Fishers name is back in the conversation after a recent interview with The Athletic, and that alone is enough to stir up old questions in College Station. He is now working as an ACC Network analyst, but his comments have reopened the broader debate about what his next move might look like and whether the college game he left behind would even be the right fit for him if he does try to get back in. [Read more 🡒]
Aggies Fans Are Loving That The SEC Finally Sees Texas
SEC Media Days have a way of sorting out the leagues pecking order before a snap is played, and this year Texas has been soaking up a lot of the glow. Between the buzz around Steve Sarkisians program and the attention flowing toward the Longhorns, the conferences newest heavyweight has become the center of the conversation in a way that has not gone unnoticed in College Station.
For Texas A&M fans, the reaction has been almost as satisfying as any on-field result, because the skepticism theyve long had about Texas is now getting aired out on a much bigger stage. Even with the hype, there are still plenty around the SEC wondering whether the Longhorns have the depth to match the spotlight, especially with the new nine-game schedule looming and the margin for error getting smaller. [Read more 🡒]