College Football Playoff expansion to 14 teams in 2026 is still on the table

The new 12-team College Football Playoff is set to make its debut with the first round of games on Dec. 20-21. However, another expansion to a 14-team format in 2026 continues to be discussed among the college football powers that be.

While speaking at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum this week, CFP executive director Rich Clark revealed the commissioners are considering the addition of two more teams in 2026, but the outcome hinges on the results of this year’s tournament.

“The commissioners will look at is 14 a better number (starting in 2026) after they see results of this playoff. How can we make it better? 14 (teams) is one of the options, staying at 12 is one of the options,” Clark said.

This season’s teams set to compete for a chance at the College Football Playoff National Championship were officially revealed on Sunday. They include Indiana, Notre Dame, SMU, Penn State, Clemson, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio State, Boise State, Arizona State, Orego, and Georgia.

[Related: 2024-25 College Football Playoff: Complete bowl schedule, dates, TV channels]

The latest rendition of the tournament awarded the top four-seeded teams a bye week, while the other eight face off in the first round at a chance for a place in the semifinals.

While the expansion to 12 teams is exciting to CFB fans, the selection committee is still receiving backlash for leaving teams out like Alabama in favor of SMU. 

Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne took to his X account on Sunday to address what he considered a snub to his team, saying, “Disappointed with the outcome and felt we were one of the 12 best teams in the country.” 

“We had an extremely challenging schedule and recognize there were two games in particular that we did not perform as well as we should have. We have said that we would need to see how strength of schedule would be evaluated by the CFP. With this outcome, we will need to assess how many P4 non-conference games make sense in the future to put us in the best position to participate in the CFP. That is not good for college football,” Byrne continued.

“With that said, we do not need to hang our heads and now need to finish this season strong. We have a great group of young men who have led us with Coach DeBoer through the last year, and we look forward to our opportunity in the ReliaQuest Bowl,” he concluded.

Adding two more teams into the mix could help to alleviate some of this drama in the future, as FOX Sports’ CFB analyst Laken Litman wrote in “College Football Playoff: Ranking first-round CFP games and top bowl matchups.”

The playoff will culminate with the CFP National Championship Game on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 in Atlanta.

Before the games begin, be sure to check out RJ Young’s CFP predictions and takeaways.

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