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https://www.espn.com/college-footba...model-gaining-traction-leaders-eye-next-steps
A 16-team College Football Playoff model featuring the top five conference champions and 11 at-large teams is gaining traction following SEC spring meetings this week, but the next step in playoff expansion for 2026 and beyond will depend on how quickly the sport's leaders can make a flurry of decisions.
A critical component is the SEC's choice between staying at eight league games or moving to nine, a topic ACC sources say could be revisited in their league after years of being dormant if prompted by playoff expansion. The linchpin to those scheduling decisions is one thing every conference seems to agree on: the need for clarity about how the CFP selection committee ranks its teams, starting with how strength of schedule is determined and applied.
Currently, strength of schedule is one of several factors not weighed in the committee's ambiguous protocol -- language the FBS commissioners wrote at the inception of the four-team playoff in 2014. There's a sense among some athletic directors in the SEC and ACC that moving to nine conference games is feasible -- if the committee doesn't penalize teams for losing two or three games against strong opponents.
Multiple ACC sources said the conference would prefer a 5+11 model, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has publicly supported it at his league's spring meetings this week.
"It has always been our first choice," Yormark told ESPN. "It's fair and rewards on-field performance. I'm not surprised SEC coaches like it."
The Big 12's administrators agree.
"The construct of the CFP wasn't to give one or two conferences more value. It was supposed to be the best way to conduct a real national championship," UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir said. "I think a 5+11 is the best way to do that, and it gets the best teams in."
A 16-team College Football Playoff model featuring the top five conference champions and 11 at-large teams is gaining traction following SEC spring meetings this week, but the next step in playoff expansion for 2026 and beyond will depend on how quickly the sport's leaders can make a flurry of decisions.
A critical component is the SEC's choice between staying at eight league games or moving to nine, a topic ACC sources say could be revisited in their league after years of being dormant if prompted by playoff expansion. The linchpin to those scheduling decisions is one thing every conference seems to agree on: the need for clarity about how the CFP selection committee ranks its teams, starting with how strength of schedule is determined and applied.
Currently, strength of schedule is one of several factors not weighed in the committee's ambiguous protocol -- language the FBS commissioners wrote at the inception of the four-team playoff in 2014. There's a sense among some athletic directors in the SEC and ACC that moving to nine conference games is feasible -- if the committee doesn't penalize teams for losing two or three games against strong opponents.
Multiple ACC sources said the conference would prefer a 5+11 model, and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has publicly supported it at his league's spring meetings this week.
"It has always been our first choice," Yormark told ESPN. "It's fair and rewards on-field performance. I'm not surprised SEC coaches like it."
The Big 12's administrators agree.
"The construct of the CFP wasn't to give one or two conferences more value. It was supposed to be the best way to conduct a real national championship," UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir said. "I think a 5+11 is the best way to do that, and it gets the best teams in."
