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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Dan Lyons

ESPN Floats 20-Team College Football Playoff With Four Play-in Games. Here’s How It Might Look.

The upcoming 2026–27 season will conclude with the third-edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff, the first expanded format in the FBS playoff’s history after the sport’s top division shifted away from the BCS in favor of a four-team playoff beginning in 2014–15. And yet, there’s a good chance it is also the final 12-team CFP.

So far, the 12-team event has been positively received ... and yet, it has changed every year and may be on the precipice of expanding once again, if the Big Ten and SEC (and their television partners, ESPN and Fox, respectively) can settle on a new number of teams and a workable format.

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