The College Football Playoff is close to a deal with ESPN that would double the field from 12 teams to 24 next season, ESPN reported Thursday. The deal still needs final approvals. Conference commissioners saw ESPN's proposal Thursday afternoon but took no vote, Yahoo Sports reported. The CFP itself said only that "constructive discussions with ESPN continued this week." The Athletic reported the deal is worth more than $300 million a year. ESPN is also the network on the other side of the deal. Under the plan ESPN described, the top eight seeds would get byes, and teams would play the first two rounds on campus. Conference title games would likely go away. Commissioners and university presidents still have to vote, and the Big Ten and SEC have the final say. The deadline is Dec. 1.

More Teams Means More Games That Matter

Conference leaders and some coaches say a bigger field keeps more schools in the race.

More teams would stay in the hunt longer. Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti has pushed hardest for 24 teams. He used to work in Major League Baseball. In May, he said that in baseball, "we never had to convince anybody that keeping more teams in the race is better for everybody and the fans." He also promised tougher schedules. "If we get the 24-team playoff, you're going to see many more competitive games scheduled," he said last week. North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick said Thursday night on his radio show that it "sounds great to me." He called it "a tremendous boost to college football."

Schools spending big on football want a real shot. "There is so much investment going on in the sport of football," Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Jim Phillips said in May. He said he's thinking of schools "that right now don't have a chance, to get into the playoff." Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said in July that "too many great teams are still left out." SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey used to favor 16 teams. On Wednesday, he said there's "an openness to playoff expansion on our part." CFP Executive Director Rich Clark told Front Office Sports he's "a fan of 12." He said 24 teams would bring "top-25 team football for a month straight."

But the 12-Team Field Already Works

Critics say a bigger bracket cheapens the regular season, and fans don't want it.

The current format made the regular season better. Yahoo Sports writer Dan Wolken wrote last month that the 12-team playoff made the regular season "even more glorious." NBC Sports writer Nicole Auerbach wrote Thursday that the current bracket "works very well as is." CBS Sports writer Shehan Jeyarajah ran last season through a 24-team field. The last at-large spot would have gone to 8-4 Iowa, which went 0-4 against ranked teams. He wrote that the playoff "is expanding so South Carolina and Maryland can lie to their donors and pretend they're not lighting money on fire."

Fans keep saying no. The Athletic columnist Stewart Mandel and his co-hosts asked listeners of their podcast, "The Audible," what they thought. In that informal survey, 70% opposed 24 teams. Mandel wrote that leaders are "plowing ahead with something that 70 percent of their own paying customers are pleading for them not to do." College football podcaster Josh Pate has pointed out that the jump from four teams to 12 had "supermajority public support."

One top coach worries about side effects. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said in May that believing a jump to 24 will fix things is "a very spastic view." "Forever in college athletics, we don't think about the unintended consequences of decisions we make," he said. He also said the selection committee "doesn't have the bandwidth to watch that many games."

And Small Conferences Would Still Get Only One Guaranteed Seat

Some writers say "more access" mostly means more spots for the power leagues. Smaller-league leaders wanted proof first.

The big leagues get most of the new spots. In the version ESPN described, 19 at-large teams, the four power-conference champions and the highest-ranked team from the six smaller conferences would get in. Yahoo Sports has reported a different version, with 23 at-large spots and one spot for the smaller conferences. Either way, the smaller leagues get one guaranteed seat. SB Nation writer Ben Schluter wrote that this "creates an inequitable bottleneck in which 68 teams get to fight for 23 spots while 70 teams fight for the 24th spot." Jeyarajah wrote that "the leaders of the sport only care about hoarding access."

Their own commissioners asked for proof first. In May, Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said, "I want to see the analysis behind it." She said 16 teams would win support "pretty easily." Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill said he favored 16 but was open to 24 if the effects were "clearly understood." Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said "there's not been a lot of due diligence done yet."

Where This Lands

Petitti, Phillips and Yormark say a bigger field gives more schools a real shot, and Petitti promises tougher schedules in return. Belichick calls it a boost for the sport, and Clark pictures a month of top-25 football. Wolken, Auerbach and Mandel say the 12-team field already works, and most of Mandel's listeners agree. Sarkisian warns that nobody has thought through the side effects. Small-conference leaders wanted more study, and writers like Schluter say their leagues still get only one guaranteed seat. Commissioners and university presidents still have to vote before the Dec. 1 deadline.

Sources