Lost in the chaos of the college football regular season has been the fact that ESPN and the College Football Playoff have been negotiating over the last 30 days over a potential deal to expand the tournament to 24 teams. The exclusive window closed on Friday night with no agreement yet a statement released by the CFP on Saturday morning indicated an answer may be imminent.
College Football Playoff statement on update to potential expansion to 24 teams is there is no update pic.twitter.com/bqvE1eV66U
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) October 10, 2026
"While Friday, October 9 marked the end of the exclusive 30-day negotiating period with ESPN, we continue to have ongoing discussions with ESPN regarding media rights connected to potential Playoff expansion to 24 teams," the statement reads in part. "The dialogue throughout the window has been constructive, and we will carry these conversations forward with ESPN as we determine the path ahead. Given the confidential nature of these discussions, there isn't more to share at this time. We will provide additional updates when appropriate."
Yes, it's the vaguest of statements, but the fact that things remain unchanged with little drama surrounding the negotiations is actually good news. Had things gone sour in those discussions, there would've been a much different tone to the message and other networks would be salivating at the opportunity to snipe lucrative coverage opportunities.
No news is good news for CFP expansion fortunes
ESPN's college football insider Pete Thamel reported during the network's College GameDay program that a final decision on the talks between his network and the CFP could come as early as Week 7. That makes the wording of the CFP's statement even more indicative of it playing things safe for the sake of preserving the opportunity at hand.
It's unclear how soon an expansion from the current 12-team format, which is in its third year this season, to a doubled 24-team bracket could take place. Considering the sport was able to adjust successfully within a year for the expansion from four teams, the 2027-28 season is very much in play.
The Big Ten and SEC will be the critical factors in any changes being ratified, however. There hasn't been any formal endorsement from either and they each have competing visions for what an expanded format would look like. The Big Ten favors some sort of 24-team bracket while the SEC prefers 16-teams. Any expansion would have to involve some number of automatic bids doled out to both conferences.
While fans would get an additional 10 postseason games with direct national championship implications, the trade-off would probably be the elimination of traditional conference championship games — hence the desired guarantee for multiple auto-bids for at least the Big Ten and SEC. Other participating conferences like the Big 12, ACC, Pac-12 and the rest of the Group of Six have little say in what the postseason will look like going forward.
Should the unlikely event of talks between the CFP and ESPN breakdown over the next week, the latter would have to relinquish the bidding rights to the additional 10 playoff games to the open market. That means competitors like FOX, CBS, Turner and NBC could all make offers to carry those specific contests before ABC & ESPN carry on with the rest of the tournament which they already own the rights to (and have sub-contracted a small number out to those very competitors).
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