After a month of meetings between ESPN and representatives from the SEC, Big Ten, and Notre Dame, the College Football Playoff is expanding to 24 teams.
Most of these conversations happened behind closed doors. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua negotiated the agreement with ESPN. They then presented the agreement to the rest of the CFP management committee. And while some people initially disagreed with the idea or were just upset that they weren’t invited to participate in the conversation, the contract is being finalized.
Pretty much every college football fan hates the idea. The logic is simple: with 24 playoff spots now available, teams could lose up to four games during the regular season and still have a chance to compete for a national championship. So, unlike past years, when every regular-season game mattered because one or two losses could knock you out of the playoffs, a 24-team playoff would theoretically water down the regular season (because two or three losses wouldn’t matter anymore).
So why did the CFP committee make this decision? Well, what you’ll read online is that it’s all about money. More teams bring more games. More games bring more revenue. That money then gets distributed to the teams in each conference.
But that’s not the right way to look at it. In fact, I ran the numbers, and expanding the CFP from 12 teams to 24 will result in only a few million dollars in additional revenue per school each season. Instead, the real reason is much more interesting.
Here’s what you need to know…
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