ESPN Looks Like the Last Line of Defense Against a Bloated 24-Team College Football Playoff

Could the network stop expansion in its tracks?

What ESPN wants, ESPN usually gets from a structural standpoint in college football—but will that be the case forever? | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

It seems hard to believe that just 13 years ago, major college football decided its champion by means of a two-team playoff, if the Bowl Championship Series can be called that.

Now, a playoff system 12 times bigger than the BCS of yore seems to be on the horizon.

The ACC is united behind the expansion of the CFP to 24 teams, it indicated Wednesday—first via a press conference given by commissioner Jim Phillips, and then via a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports. The move puts the conference in lockstep with the Big Ten, the loudest backer of an expanded format.

Phillips’s league’s shift was interesting enough on its own, but he cited as a prominent opponent of a 24-team field an entity that may surprise some fans: ESPN.

“(ESPN) has been pretty clear with all of us that they’d like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16,” Phillips said Wednesday via the AP’s Mark Long.

What reason could ESPN have for opposing expansion?

It’s pretty simple. If the CFP expands beyond 14 teams, its media-rights contract will no longer fall under the initial terms of the deal it struck with ESPN in 2024 for that network to air the event through 2031.

As it currently stands, ESPN wields extraordinary power over college football, as the sole rightsholder of its most popular conference (the SEC), the sole rightsholder of its postseason system, and its largest media apparatus. If the CFP expanded to 24 teams, ESPN would almost certainly have to cough up some of its inventory to another network or streaming service, beyond its current agreement to sublicense some CFP games to TNT.

It’s possible—likely in fact—that some in the SEC and at ESPN oppose hyper-expansion on the grounds that it would degrade the sport’s regular season. However, the conference and network’s executives are likely using different reasoning—a potential loss of money, power and prestige—to arrive at the same conclusion.

A 24-team CFP system appears unpopular with fans, but that hasn’t stopped college sports’ power brokers in the recent past

On May 5, Scott Dochterman of The Athletic asked a pool of well over 3,000 Big Ten fans for their ideal CFP size. Just 9%—nine percent!—said 24. That is the attitude of fans in the league most in favor of a 24-team system.

In an era dripping with big-business contempt for consumers, college sports has proven a quick learner and eager implementer. On Thursday, over a litany of protests from fans and observers, college basketball’s power brokers expanded both NCAA Division I tournaments from 68 to 76 teams. Not even ESPN’s Pete Thamel writing that the expansion “isn't expected to be a financial windfall for the NCAA and its members” could stop it.

A 24-team CFP isn’t a done deal, and more than half a year remains before the sport’s power brokers have to make a decision on the 2027 format. If you enjoy the 12-team system, though—and it seems many do—Wednesday was a discouraging 24 hours.

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