Have you ever thought to yourself that the No. 25 college football team in the nation should have the chance to play for a national championship?
No? Well, tough nougies, the Big Ten wants to make it happen anyway.
Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Big Ten has floated the idea of expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 or 28 teams.
This idea, which is still in its early stages per Thamel, would blow up the entire college football conference championship and postseason structure. The proposal would eliminate conference title games and provide a large number of automatic bids to all four power leagues.
In the 28-team model, the Big Ten and SEC would receive seven auto bids while the ACC and Big 12 would receive five. There would also be two auto bids for non-Power Four conferences and two at-large teams. The CFP committee would seed the field of eligible teams and pick the at-large participants.
According to The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach, the first two rounds would be played on campuses, with the first round to be played during the current conference championship weekend.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti reportedly discussed the idea with conference members on Wednesday.
2025 will be the second season of the 12-team playoff, but there have been loud calls for expansion beyond that for a while now. The Big Ten and SEC had been pushing hard to expand the CFP to 16 teams, including four auto bids apiece, as well as addenda like automatic qualifier games.
Petitti was the de facto leader of this charge, so to hear that he’s changing his tune towards larger expansion has caused some college football insiders to wonder why. One prevailing theory is that a call for 24 or 28 teams will make 16 teams seem more palatable by comparison, softening others to accept that initial idea.
They’re trying to make “16 teams with autobids” seem rational and acceptable, and it sucks so much.
(Also, a 28-team playoff that doesn’t include EVERY conference champ would be the most ridiculous possible insult, even by FBS standards.)https://t.co/UiaFHv46vf
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) August 16, 2025
CFP executives meet in person Sept. 24, so that’s likely when we’ll get a sense of how realistic the support is for this or any other expansion model.
Given that ESPN’s college football hosts loudly call for bigger names in the CFP, coupled with the fact that ESPN has the rights to the playoff, don’t expect to hear too much pushback on their end to any expansion idea that includes automatic bids for the Big Ten and SEC. The biggest issue for them will be how any expansion messes with the NFL’s scheduling, especially now that those two entities are in bed with one another.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.