College Football Playoff Expanding to 24 Teams in 2027

Last updated: Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, 11:10 a.m. ET. This is a developing story. The deal was reported by ESPN and CBS Sports citing sources; the CFP had not posted a formal announcement on its website at the time of writing.

College football's postseason is doubling again. The College Football Playoff and ESPN have signed a five-year deal worth nearly $1.7 billion that expands the field from 12 to 24 teams starting in 2027, sources told ESPN's Heather Dinich. CBS Sports reported within minutes that the expansion is official.

The price of all those extra games is steep: the Power 4 conference championship games go away.

Searches for "cfp" passed 5,000 on Google Trends within the hour, with "24 team playoff" climbing behind it.

How the 24-team College Football Playoff works

Per ESPN, the field breaks down like this:

The top eight seeds get a first-round bye and then a home game. Seeds 9 through 16 host first-round games, and the first two rounds are played on the higher seed's campus. The No. 1 seed would face the winner of No. 16 vs. No. 17, and No. 2 would get the winner of No. 15 vs. No. 18.

The New Year's Six bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Peach, Orange and Cotton) still host the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Notre Dame loses its guarantee. Under the new setup, the Irish have to be ranked high enough for an at-large bid, ESPN reported. The selection committee will keep ranking its top 25 and could stretch the weekly list to 30 so fans can see who's on the bubble.

Conference championship games are gone

This is the part that will sting in places like Atlanta and Las Vegas. The SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 will crown champions off regular-season standings and their own tiebreakers, according to ESPN's sources.

The SEC started the modern conference title game in 1992, and it has been worth around $100 million a year to the league, CBS Sports noted. Replacing that money was the sticking point for commissioners all fall.

Army-Navy moves into the old championship weekend with a standalone window on Dec. 4, ESPN reported, while playoff teams rest. The Heisman ceremony is expected later that night.

Key dates for 2027

• Season start: "Week Zero," the week before Labor Day
• Regular season ends: Thanksgiving weekend
• Selection Day: Sunday, Nov. 28, 2027
• Playoff begins: Second weekend of December 2027
• National championship: Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans

None of this touches the current season. This year's 12-team bracket plays out as planned, with the title game on Jan. 25, 2027, in Las Vegas, according to the CFP.

The money behind the ESPN deal

ESPN already pays an average of $1.3 billion a year under the six-year, $7.8 billion contract it signed in March 2024, which runs through the 2031-32 season. The expansion adds an average of about $345 million a year over the next five years, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported.

ESPN stays the sole rights holder, but it can sublicense six of the 12 new games to other networks for exclusive broadcasts.

The two sides opened a 30-day negotiating window on Sept. 9 that closed Oct. 9. On Nov. 6, the CFP said a formal agreement with ESPN was "in the final stages of review."

Why the Big Ten got its way

The Big Ten pushed for 24 teams from the start. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had publicly favored a 16-team field that would have kept his league's title game, CBS Sports reported. The two conferences agreed in September to study the bigger bracket.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has pushed back on the idea that a bigger field devalues the regular season, ESPN reported, pointing to "tiered incentives" in the format. A top-eight seed means a bye and a home game, and teams hovering around No. 17 and No. 18 will be fighting to host a first-round game.

The jump comes just two seasons after the playoff went from four teams to 12.

For where things stand this year, see the latest AP Top 25 college football poll.

Still unconfirmed: the CFP's formal statement, any changes to how the selection committee works, and whether the SEC and Big Ten announce new scheduling agreements tied to the expansion. We'll update this story as details are released.