College Football: Playoff field doubles to 24 for 2027

The postseason landscape for American college football changes permanently this coming winter, as the governing body confirmed a major structural overhaul for the upcoming cycle. The College Football Playoff organization announced on Monday that the tournament will expand to include 24 teams beginning with the 2027 season. This decision doubles the size of the current field, which has operated with 12 participants since 2024.

Under the new rules, every champion from the four major athletic conferences will receive an automatic berth into the tournament. The Power 4 conferences, consisting of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12, will cease holding traditional conference championship games. Instead, titles will be determined strictly by regular season standings and specific tiebreaker criteria established by each league. This change removes a longstanding end-of-season ritual in favor of a format that weighs the entire season record more heavily.

The expansion also guarantees a spot for the highest-ranked team from the Group of 6, which includes the American Athletic, Sun Belt, Mid-America, Mountain West, Pac-12, and Conference USA leagues. The remaining 19 slots in the field will be filled by at-large selections made by the selection committee. The CFP stated that the move is intended to broaden access for FBS programs and their fan bases to compete for the national championship.

The tournament bracket will feature first-round byes for the top eight ranked teams. Schools ranked nine through 16 will host their opponents, who will be ranked 17 through 24, at their home stadiums. The second round will also be played on campus venues, resulting in a total of 16 games being held at home locations. The quarterfinals and semifinals will continue to take place at the existing New Year's six bowl games: the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange, Peach, and Cotton Bowls.

To accommodate the new schedule, the annual Army-Navy game will be moved to what is traditionally conference championship week. The contest will be played on the first Saturday in December, a date that will remain free of other playoff games to preserve the rivalry as a standalone event. The CFP noted that new scheduling standards will encourage schools to arrange more compelling non-conference matchups during the regular season.

The playoff has undergone several changes since its inception in 2014. It began with a four-team format that remained in effect through the 2023 season. The field tripled to 12 teams for the 2024 season, and the upcoming expansion to 24 teams will make the field six times larger than when the system was first introduced. The 24-team format is set to remain in place for at least five seasons, covering the period from 2027 through the 2031-32 season.

Controversy has accompanied previous format changes in the sport. In 2023, an undefeated Florida State team was excluded from the four-team playoff after its starting quarterback suffered a late-season injury. More recently, in 2025, Notre Dame was omitted from the 12-team field after falling below Miami in the committee's final rankings, despite leading the Hurricanes in previous assessments. The regular season for the upcoming year will begin the week before Labor Day and conclude on the final weekend of November.