Leaked Big Ten Document Offers Insight On New Potential College Football Playoff Format

New Big Ten internal documents outline a 24-team College Football Playoff proposal that removes conference title games.

A leaked document reveals how Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti views a potential 24-team College Football Playoff format and other significant rule changes. | Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

An internal document circulating within the Big Ten has provided a rare look at a potential future where the College Football Playoff expands to include 24 programs. This revelation comes as the sport enters a new era of 12 teams, yet its most powerful leaders already look toward a much larger bracket.

ESPN's Pete Thamel shared details of this proposal, which suggests a dramatic shift in how the national champion is crowned and how the regular season concludes for the elite schools.

The leaked vision from the Big Ten offers a glimpse of a system designed to maximize participation while protecting athletes' health. This strategy comes at a time when conference leaders feel playoff-or-bust pressure, making every loss in the current format feel catastrophic for a season.

By increasing the field, the league aims to create a safety net for teams that might stumble early in the year but find their rhythm by November.

Coaches and athletic directors are reportedly finding common ground on these ideas because they provide more opportunities to justify the rapidly rising expenses of modern rosters. The document includes a timeline that would see a move to 16 participants in 2027, then jump to nearly two dozen by the end of the decade.

This roadmap is not yet an official policy, but it serves as a significant indicator of where the most influential decision makers want to take the postseason.

Leaked Big Ten 24-team College Football Playoff model

The core of the 24-team proposal is a significant change to the December schedule: the complete removal of conference championship games. Big Ten officials described these games as artificial hurdles that often force top teams to take on more risk than necessary to secure a television window.

The document argues that a larger playoff field would eliminate the need for these matchups while providing a more authentic path to the title. Under this 24-team framework, the selection process would include the 23 best programs and one designated spot for the Group of Six.

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti is seeking to carve out a College Football Playoff that would better serve the interests of his conference. | Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

There would be no automatic qualifiers for conference winners, a major departure from traditional selection methods. The top eight seeds would earn a week off while the remaining 16 teams face each other in a series of opening rounds played at campus stadiums.

Moving the first two rounds to campus sites is a primary goal for the Big Ten because it gives the highest-ranked programs home-field advantage. The current system was recently criticized for failing to allow teams like Indiana to host a game despite their high ranking and successful season.

Despite winning this year's national championship, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers did not host a game in the College Football Playoff under current rules. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

These campus games would take place in early December and be scheduled to avoid conflicts with weekend professional football broadcasts. Financially, the plan relies on a significant increase in television inventory to offset revenue losses from conference title games.

While the Power 4 championship games currently generate over $200 million, the document suggests that ten additional playoff games could attract even higher bids from media partners. This transition would likely coincide with the end of current television contracts and allow for a fresh round of negotiations for the entire sport.