Are We Already Headed For A 14-Team Playoff After 2025? Big Ten, SEC Additions Are Helping Current Discussions

Are you excited about the college football playoff format that will start this upcoming season? Either way, it might not matter what the next two seasons look like with a 12-team playoff, because the push for it to move to 14 teams is underway. 

As college football leaders met in Dallas on Wednesday to discuss the future of the sport beyond the 2025 season, conversations continued about what to do when the television contract with ESPN expires. If I were an ESPN executive, i wouldn't worry too much about whether a deal gets finalized. I'd be more concerned about how many games the deal will comprise. 

According to sources aware of the potential plans for the next wave of college football, the focus has shifted on how many more automatic qualifiers the CFP will potentially extend to conferences like the SEC and Big Ten. The discussion of how many of these automatic qualifiers each conference outside the Power-4 would receive has not shifted much, with most of the discussions having Group of Five members getting one spot in the playoff. 

But heading into Wednesday's meeting, a number of Group of Five representatives were prepared for conferences like the Big Ten and SEC to ask for more, with new models that were presented to the committee. Being that these two conferences will have an additional six teams join in the next five months, the large contingent of powerful schools who carry massive weight around college football have turned these discussions toward additional qualifiers. 

On Tuesday, it was announced that the college football playoff would move to a 5+7 format for the next two seasons. This model gives automatic qualifiers to the top-ranked conference champions, with the next seven spots going to the highest ranked teams. This gives some conferences the chance to have multiple teams in the playoffs, which we've seen in years past. 

What Would A 14-Team Playoff Look Like In 2026? 

This is where a new television contract could become even further lucrative for ESPN and its right to broadcast games, even if that means licensing a game to a network outside the family. Under this new potential college football playoff with 14-teams, we could see the top-2 teams receive a first round bye, like we will see in the 12-team playoff this season. 

Don't forget that under the format that will start this season, the four highest ranked conference title winners receive a first-round bye. The opening rounds will have games being played on school campuses around the country, while the quarterfinals and subsequent semifinals will be played at New Years Six bowl game sites. 

The only difference that a potential 14-team playoff could bring is that additional game, which could be sub-licesned, if both sides agreed to that stipulation in the final contract. This is just one of the situations discussed with leaders over the last month, which reports alluded to when the new ESPN deal was first announced to be agreed upon. It should be noted that the CFP and ESPN have yet to sign an agreement because of these playoff scenarios needing to be further discussed and agreed to. 

Also, it should be noted that upping the current automatic qualifiers could lead to conferences being able to sell regular-season games as being more pivotal for playoff standings. 

"If you're going to give a certain conference four automatic qualifiers, it makes the regular season games that much more important," one person familiar with talks told OutKick. "A game in October will be crucial, just as much as one in November would be. Look at the basketball model for example. When you have four teams battling for a double-bye in a conference tournament, just think of that tournament as the automatic qualifiers to get into the playoffs. 

"We see folks talking about how important those bye's are, and tracking them until the final regular season game of the year. Now think about it being for a spot in the playoffs. This is why certain conferences want more automatic bids, because it also helps the regular-season product."

It will be interesting to see how fast the CFP committee tries to get this done, as time is not really on its side. ESPN would love to have this contract signed, but with additional models being discussed this week, it could take a little bit of time, but Bill Hancock said the committee needs to have this done within the next month. 

Either way, the new playoff format that has gotten a ton of buzz over the last few years, might only last for two seasons. But if you think this is about anything other than the bottom dollar, you're fooling yourself. 

There's a reason why ESPN is about to pay upward of $8 billion for the television rights, and who knows how much more the committee can get down the road if they keep adding teams to the college football playoff.