ACC ADs, coaches voice support for expanded 24-team College Football Playoff

During the conference’s spring meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., ACC coaches and athletics directors voiced their support for a 24-team College Football Playoff. One person in the room said there was a “consensus,” Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported.

The ACC is the second of the power conferences to speak in favor of a 24-team CFP. The Big Ten remains a staunch supporter of the model, and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) has also vouched for expansion with the “maximum number of participants.”

One person in the discussions said “the room isn’t split” with regard to a 24-team field, according to Dellenger. But while the ACC and Big Ten are on board with that level of expansion, the SEC has long been in favor of going to 16 teams if the bracket grows from 12.

As for whether there could be further expansion, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently said he heard concerns about the college football calendar when the CFP grew from four teams to 12 in 2024. He noted that had settled down and stressed the need to “do the homework” about possibly growing the bracket again.

“I also know that when we tried to go from 4 to 12, I had commissioner colleagues whose stopping point was student-athletes’ health, well-being, the number of games. How (does it affect) the full calendar? And I said to the media last week, it’s ironic we’re not even talking about that. That’s a gentle reminder to all of us that just adding games has consequences,” Sankey said. “… We have to do the homework.

“And when we went from 4 to 12, I think one of the mistakes was we announced we’re going to 12 and then negotiated with the media. We should understand the media marketplace before we have an increase in, for example, the number of teams.”

This year’s College Football Playoff is staying at 12 teams after talks of expansion broke down last year. The Big Ten and SEC, in particular, disagreed on what the new-look bracket would entail. Since they have the bulk of the power when it comes to the future of the CFP, the field stayed the same, although there will be some changes in 2026.

This year, each Power Four conference will receive a spot in the bracket, as will Notre Dame if the Irish are in the Top 12 of the final rankings reveal. That’s a shift from the previous model with the five highest-ranked conference champions. Last year’s ACC champion, Duke, and Notre Dame both missed the CFP last season.