College Football Playoff expansion: Pac-12, Mountain West investing in success, “need to have hope” that access awaits

The Pac-12 hasn’t staked out an official position on the College Football Playoff’s future format, at least in terms of the field size. But philosophically, the conference has a clear preference: access.

Whether the CFP expands to 16 or 24 teams as early as the 2027 season, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould views access as the core issue — both for her conference and the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt, which are collectively known as the Group of Six.

Gould participated in management committee meetings last week in Texas, along with her fellow FBS commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, and termed the discussions “healthier and more robust than we’ve had recently.”

“We weren’t fixated on a specific number of teams,” she added. “It was more about the principles behind the decision: What are we trying to accomplish? What do we care about?”

The Group of Six leagues care about not being marginalized to a greater degree than they already are.

Under the 12-team CFP format in place for next season, the highest-ranked team from the Group of Six will have an automatic bid.

That carve-out is expected to remain in place if the event expands to 16 teams, with the additional bids going to at-large teams (presumably from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC).

But if the field size doubles, would the Group of Six retain just one automatic bid? If so, access for the conferences would be cut in half, from 1-in-12 to 1-in-24.

Gould said the Group of Six commissioners are “aligned that it’s really important to ensure reasonable access so that the regular season and conference championship games mean something.”

(American commissioner Tim Pernetti, a leading voice for the G6, declined to comment on the CFP discussions, while Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez was unavailable.)

Will their alignment matter against the big brands of the Power Four and the codified authority of the Big Two?

Based on an agreement reached in the spring of 2024, the SEC and Big Ten control changes to the CFP format and are merely required to consult with the other conferences.

To this point, the event’s overlords have been unable to agree. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti pitched a 24-team format months ago and received zero support. But the dynamics have shifted this spring in favor of 24, with one exception: For a variety of reasons, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey prefers 16.

(Not surprisingly, their respective positions align with the preferences of their network partners. Fox, which controls the Big Ten’s media rights, wants a 24-team field. ESPN, which controls the SEC’s media rights, prefers a 16-team format.)

Unless Petitti and Sankey reach an agreement by Dec. 1, the 12-team current structure will remain in place for the 2027 season, as well.

“We didn’t take a formal position on the numbers,” Gould said. “I was focused more on what the format looks like. When would it start? What is the conference championship game impact? What are the economics?

“It was more on the philosophical level.”

The shift to 16 would have a modest impact on the sport and, in theory, could be implemented without adding another weekend to the CFP in a crowded December sports calendar.

But a move to 24 would create momentous logistical and competitive changes by adding another week to the CFP, eliminating the conference championships — the SEC’s edition, in particular, is extremely valuable — and potentially undercutting the significance of the sport’s cherished regular season.

There are merits to both 16- and 24-team fields and, for that matter, to maintaining the status quo with 12 until a larger sample size develops. After all, no other major sport would consider doubling the size of its postseason field after just two years of a given format.

But for the Group of Six, there appears to be one wholly untenable outcome: The field size doubles but its access shrinks by half.

“Our schools are investing at a high level,” Gould said. “They need to have hope.

“We are definitely aligned around the access piece. It’s critical that a larger field provides more access.”

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