NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Go ahead and get used to it now: The debate over expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Sitting inside Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea’s office on Wednesday, it wasn’t hard to notice the ongoing chatter that has now resurfaced.
Since CFP leaders concluded their meetings in Miami, before Indiana capped a historic season with a national championship, the battle between the SEC and the rest of college football has only intensified, with the most recent meeting taking place outside Dallas.
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At the center of all this is a question: How big should the playoff field really be?
For months, the SEC has stood firmly behind a 16-team format, a model supported by its television partner ESPN. Meanwhile, the Big Ten has pushed for 24 teams, an idea that initially drew resistance from the ACC and the Big 12 before opinions began to change.
That’s nothing new. Conference commissioners changing positions is practically part of the job. But this time, the stakes are higher. With growing revenue-sharing challenges in college athletics (and some schools already eliminating sports), expanding the playoffs has become a potential financial lifeline.
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Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips speaks during an NCAA college football news conference at the ACC media days in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 20, 2022. (Nell Redmond/AP)
More teams mean more games. More games mean more TV inventory. And more inventory means more money, perhaps.
As the new College Football Playoff contract with ESPN begins, which is a six-year deal, there are a number of teams that could essentially bring in additional offers. According to industry sources, if the CFP were to reach an agreement on a 14-team postseason, ESPN would still retain its inventory of games, which they could continue to sublicense to networks like TNT or TBS.
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But, if CFP leaders were to somehow agree to the 24-team, or even 16-team, format, this would allow networks like FOX, NBC, or CBS to join the game if they were willing to pay. This follows from the contract signed by ESPN and the CFP, which would allow the playoff to put on the market the extra games that would come from a 24-team postseason.
And while that might be the case, from an economic standpoint, the smarter decision would be for ESPN to simply purchase the rights to the additional games of a 16-team playoff, since it might not be worth the price for FOX or NBC to purchase the two additional matchups.
Although it’s not hard to see why several lectures would be included.
It’s not that easy. Were conference title games replaced by play-in matchups?
As Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea noted this week in Nashville, expansion isn’t as simple as adding more teams.
“The first thing we need to focus on is when we finish the season,” Clark Lea told OutKick. “I think we have a real problem right now, and I think the problem is related to television contracts and dedicated time slots where we’re not competing with the NFL, and things like that that extend our season by three weeks in January and that absolutely undermine the integrity of what we’re trying to do as a sport.
“Whatever we do next with the playoffs, expansion is coming. We all (the SEC) expected it this year and it had a setback. But as expansion comes, it can’t come at the expense of paying attention to the end of the seasons, and let’s be more reasonable in tying that together.”
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Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops and Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea stand on the field after an NCAA college football game in Nashville, Tennessee, on Nov. 22, 2025. (George Walker IV/AP)
As OutKick reported over the past year, expanding the playoffs to this magnitude could also come with the caveat that conference title games would cease to exist. While this may seem like an easy fix to some, it’s a much broader concept to achieve, given the amount of money ESPN and FOX pay for these title games, with both games receiving $160 million for their title games combined.
“We’re going to have to let go of some traditional year-end elements in college football,” Clark Lea said, while noting that he “believes” it would be a conference championship.
So what replaces them?
“It sort of incorporates the playoff model, right?” Lea offered. “Otherwise, this (season) goes on forever. I think last year we saw these ridiculous pauses in play, which I think ruin the competitive product on the field. I’d be very interested to hear answers and get people thinking about those things.
“How do we improve the product, tighten the season? Finishing closer to the end of the semester, the portal window. Now all of a sudden we have a better product.”
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The idea of reorganizing an SEC, Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 championship weekend into play-in type games for each conference is an idea that television networks like ESPN and FOX have at least been discussing.
Since they would be giving up a game to make money in terms of advertising and ratings, the replacement would have to be attractive enough to contemplate.
But if you asked fans if they would prefer to see four teams battle it out in Atlanta, Indianapolis, Charlotte or Dallas over a two-day period for a spot in the College Football Playoffs, I imagine it would be an easy sell for both networks and advertisers.
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Even then, deciding on a route to follow is not an easy task.
“Those decisions should be made based on generating the most revenue possible and getting the best possible negotiation from each game we have. So, saying 24 or 16 is really saying as many teams as we can, without giving up the ability to negotiate what those games can bring us.
Head coach Clark Lea of the Vanderbilt Commodores thanks the fans after beating the Missouri Tigers at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 25, 2025. (Carly Mackler/Getty Images)
At the end of the day, people just want to see the sport of college football in the best place it can be in the future, which includes coaches competing for spots, like Clark Lea.
“What we do when we start participating in these conversations is become fans. I know it is much more complex than simply adding as many teams as possible. This must be done in the best way to optimize our product and drive the revenue we need to sustain our sport.”
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While SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is essentially standing on an island in terms of pushing for a 16-team format to make the jump to 24, we’re starting to hear his coaches within the conference begin to express their different opinions on what the future should really look like.
While that might be the case, coaches have limited say in these conversations, as I discussed on Wednesday.
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Either way, spring meetings in college football have become much more important over the past two years, with the Big Ten scheduled to meet next week in Los Angeles while the SEC prepares to meet after Memorial Day in Florida.
Let the games continue.
