College Football 2026 Offseason

[Outshined_One]

Lou Holtz died.

I'm sure the NCAA will impose sanctions and hand down a bowl ban for UMinnesota in his memory.

[Andy]

4 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

Lou Holtz died.

I'm sure the NCAA will impose sanctions and hand down a bowl ban for UMinnesota in his memory.

Even as an ND fan, the joke someone made on Twitter about how his hospice care team will now be put on NCAA probation drew a polite chuckle.

[Old Style]

[Andy]

The winds have shifted on CFP talk, as everyone but the SEC is apparently now in favor of a 24-team playoff that would remove all auto-bids, end conference title games and probably guarantee a G5/G6 spot (and likely only one, since the committee would conveniently stop ranking those teams now that those spots matter). The SEC is sticking to wanting a 16-team system that would likely preserve the title games; the SEC's is the biggest and most financially lucrative one.

ACC commissioner went public saying ESPN, which has a contract for all the CFP games up to a 14-team system, doesn't want to expand beyond 16.

Edited May 19 by Andy

[soccer10k]

On 5/19/2026 at 8:24 AM, Andy said:

The SEC is sticking to wanting a 16-team system that would likely preserve the title games; the SEC's is the biggest and most financially lucrative one.

I should have guessed it was a money thing when I saw the SEC didn’t want to go to 24.

[Old Style]

28 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

I should have guessed it was a money thing when I saw the SEC didn’t want to go to 24.

Yeah, that’s strictly an SEC thing to be motivated by money. Lol. 

[soccer10k]

15 minutes ago, Old Style said:

Yeah, that’s strictly an SEC thing to be motivated by money. Lol. 

Never said it was.

[Old Style]

29 minutes ago, soccer10k said:

Never said it was.

Yeah, you kinda did. You think the other conferences would still want it if they would make LESS money with an expanded playoff?

[mul21]

46 minutes ago, Old Style said:

Yeah, that’s strictly an SEC thing to be motivated by money. Lol. 

It is funny how they've got their mouthpiece Finebaum out here arguing how it would devalue the regular season to go to 24.

[Old Style]

5 minutes ago, mul21 said:

It is funny how they've got their mouthpiece Finebaum out here arguing how it would devalue the regular season to go to 24.

Finebaum is a buffoon but so are most of those talking heads out there. 

[soccer10k]

4 minutes ago, Old Style said:

Yeah, you kinda did. You think the other conferences would still want it if they would make LESS money with an expanded playoff?

No I didn’t. I was strictly addressing the SEC not wanting to go to 24. Had no idea how lucrative the SEC title game was. Just figured more games would mean more money for all of them, which apparently it doesn’t. Was as simple as that.

[Andy]

5 hours ago, soccer10k said:

No I didn’t. I was strictly addressing the SEC not wanting to go to 24. Had no idea how lucrative the SEC title game was. Just figured more games would mean more money for all of them, which apparently it doesn’t. Was as simple as that.

Thing is, there's not much evidence 24 would generate much more money. ESPN already extended their CFP contract for 2026-32 at a number less than most media observers predicted. And The Athletic reported that FOX, who is driving this push for 24 largely because ESPN has the contract for a playoff up to 14, didn't even launch a bid. And it's not like the B1G title game generates peanuts, it's pretty darn lucrative too. There'd have to be a very large number for these extra games for the big 2 conferences not to lose money dumping their title games, and I'm not sure that number is there.

In short, none of this makes any sense at all. I'm not optimistic a lack of interest will save CFB from itself on this, because that's not what happened with the NCAA tournament and it's never what happens ever, but we'll see.

Edited May 22 by Andy