College Football Playoff announces expansion plans for coming years

With every concluded college football playoff, comes a conversation about playoff expansion. Many teams every cycle wondering if they would have made the playoff field if the field was expanded.

For at least the 2026 season, the NCAA will keep the playoff a 12-team field.

According to CBS Sports, the CFP Management Committee announced on Friday the format will remain unchanged in 2026.

The Power 4 commissioners convened this past Sunday morning, but no progress was made regarding expansion. The topic on the table was expanding to either 16 or 24 teams. The Big Ten and SEC maintain voting control over the 10 FBS conferences and independents. While the Big Ten prefers a 24-team model, the SEC would prefer a 16-team model.

After the Sunday morning meeting, commissioners exited the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach without much detail on details of that meeting. “Still more work to do,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said as he passed by reporters.

Two expansion models discussed, no agreement for either

The SEC’s plan of a 16-team model has the support of the ACC and Big 12. That plan includes the top 5 seeds going to the top 5 highest ranked conference winners.

Whereas the Big Ten plan is to have one automatic bid going to the highest ranked Group of Five conference champion and 23 at large bids.

College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark provided a summation of the talks and their 2026 decision.

"After ongoing discussion about the 12-team playoff format, the decision was made to continue with the current structure," College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark said in a statement.

"This will give the Management Committee additional time to review the 12-team format, so they can better assess the need for potential change," Clark added. "While they all agree the current format has brought more excitement to college football and has given more schools a real shot in the postseason, another year of evaluation will be helpful."  

As it currently stands barring new information or another meeting of the committee and commissioners, the playoff format should remain unchanged for the 2026 season.

More college football news: 

• SNL pokes fun at Michael Irvin's amped up Miami Hurricanes fandom
• Miami hasn’t beaten a No. 1 team in 26 years— Indiana stands in the way
• Here's how much Miami is paying its 2025 roster for College Football Playoff run
• Carson Beck shares honest reaction to 'Vanilla Vick' nickname
• Ex-Indiana QB fires back after portrayal in CBS 60 Minutes interview