The expected expansion – inflation, really – of the College Football Playoff became official Monday morning. And my first question after glancing at the news release: Who does this really benefit, anyway? Besides, of course, ESPN. The Worldwide Leader in Argument Television is the big winner here, with a new media rights deal with the CFP that, as the news release reads, “makes ESPN the ...

Head coach Curt Cignetti of the Indiana Hoosiers hoists the George P. Crumbley Trophy after defeating the Oregon Ducks in the 2026 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 9, 2026, in Atlanta.

Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images North America/TNS

The expected expansion – inflation, really – of the College Football Playoff became official Monday morning. And my first question after glancing at the news release: Who does this really benefit, anyway?

Besides, of course, ESPN.

The Worldwide Leader in Argument Television is the big winner here, with a new media rights deal with the CFP that, as the news release reads, “makes ESPN the exclusive, worldwide rightsholder to the expanded 24-team Playoff, beginning with the 2027-28 season. The exclusive home of the CFP since its inception in 2015, ESPN … will present all 23 games of the new format. Financial terms were not disclosed.”

I’m not one to shed a tear for the people at Fox, and I suspect their sports programmers were prepared for this. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point, they reassess their commitment to and involvement in college football coverage.

Beyond that, who really benefits outside of those who handle the money?

I’m not sure there are even 12 teams capable of winning a national championship. I’m pretty sure doubling the field isn’t going to expand that number, but it likely will expand the number of coaches who get fired if they don’t make it.

The expanded field will consist of the conference champions from the Autonomous Four (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC), the highest ranked team – note the singular reference, rather than plural – from the Group of Six conferences (American, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt, Mountain West and Pac-12, and 19 at-large teams). That likely means sixth- and seventh-place teams from the SEC and Big Ten.

How many of those will be three- and four-loss teams? The Cinderella team may quicken hearts and bust brackets in March Madness, but that concept doesn’t exist in college athletics’ most brutal sport.

Oh, and an expanded field means an expanded number of games: The teams that will reach the final in late January will be playing in their 17th game of the season – or, if they’ve played a regular season game in Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico, their 18th.

So I don’t want to hear anything from the sport’s decision-makers about the health and safety of the athletes. Those words ring hollow.

The top 16 seeds will get to play their first playoff game at home, seeds 9-16 in the first round and the top eight after a bye week. And since this will be December, there’s almost certainly going to be at least a couple of snow games mixed in. Marvelous.

The quarterfinal and semifinal games will be held at the traditional New Year’s Day bowl sites, the CFP statement confirmed, which means that the Rose Bowl indeed will continue to be part of the playoff process.

Ideally, it will be at 2 p.m. on Jan. 1. If not, I’m rooting for a monsoon the night they do play.

The expanded playoff will also avoid conflicting with the Army-Navy game – the assumption, I presume, being that neither would ever qualify for the 24-team field – and the Heisman Trophy ceremony will be moved up a week as well.

But here’s an intriguing point: The CFP Management Committee is adopting scheduling standards “that will incentivize institutions to schedule additional compelling non-conference, regular season matchups,” according to its statement. Programs from the Autonomous Four must schedule 10 games that are either conference games or non-conference games against other power conference foes or Notre Dame.

How to enforce that?

“I think in the end it’s going to be up to us to make sure that we’re rewarding that schedule strength, as we do,” said CFP executive director Rich Clark on a teleconference Monday morning. “We’ll continue to look at that to make sure that teams understand that those marquee wins really do mean a lot, that if they have those games in their schedule, especially in their non-conference schedule, that it could benefit them to win one of those marquee games.

“I think ultimately the proof will be in the pudding as to who gets into the playoff and who doesn’t.”

I’m not sure I totally agree. If you beat everyone put in front of you, your team definitely shouldn’t be ranked behind two-loss teams based on reputation and pedigree, as was the case in last week’s first ranking of the season with two-loss Alabama and Texas – both, ahem, from the ESPN-favored SEC – ahead of undefeated UCLA. We’ll see what happens this week.

(UCLA, by the way, met that schedule standard this season, with just two of its 12 games against Group of Six programs. Meanwhile, USC’s three early-season games against San José State, Louisiana and Fresno State would have put them below the 10-game threshold. Maybe the Trojans should make a renewed effort to get Notre Dame back on the schedule.)

And consider Clark’s response when asked about the perception that “the online segment of the fan base seem to be against” expansion. Social media discourse tends to be something less than totally accurate, and occasionally unhinged, but the executive director took a “let them eat cake” attitude.

“We’re aware of the fan sentiment and that many fans aren’t in favor of expansion,” he said. “That was certainly weighed into the decision. It was considered. Ultimately we just need to make a spectacular playoff. I mean, the CFP has a responsibility to our fans; they’re the lifeblood of college football. We owe it to them to make this great.

“… We did take into account their sentiment. That was rolled into this decision. But we decided to move forward with it.”

Brave words, considering that college football TV ratings are already down this season. You sure you want to dilute your postseason further?

In fact, the more I see from the custodians of college football, the more I prefer a promotion/relegation system for the sport.

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