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Mario Cristobal opposes 24-team College Football Playoff: 'That's just a lot'

IMG_0985by: Griffin McVeigh05/13/26griffin_mcveigh

On Wednesday, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips publicly supported the idea of the 24-team College Football Playoff. He was joined by Brett Yormark of the Big 12, being the latest to get behind the movement. Expansion feels inevitable at this point, doubling the field’s size at some point. Not everybody inside Phillip’s conference is thrilled with the idea, though.

Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, who is fresh off a CFP run, opposed the 24-team format on Wednesday. He says too many teams are getting involved in the process, claiming “it’s not a beauty pageant.” The size is not his only gripe, either. Cristobal does not appear to be in favor of conferences getting autobids.

“I’m not for the 24-team thing,” Cristobal said via This Is Football. “I think that’s just a lot. Like, why play a regular season then? And I’m certainly not for automatic bids. ‘Hey, this conference gets’ — like, why? It’s not a beauty pageant. Okay, it’s not a beauty contest. It’s competition. Go win, go win on the field. The guys that deserve it get in and figure it out from there.”

Cristobal saw his team sneak into the 12-team field on Selection Sunday this past year. Debates ensued for weeks about Miami vs. Notre Dame, who had played earlier in the season. Notre Dame was ahead of them for the longest time, only for the committee to flip-flop them at the last moment. Miami went on to win three games in the CFP and fall just short of winning a national championship.

In a world where 24 teams got into the bracket, Miami would not have had to worry about getting left out by the committee. In fact, some comfort would be present for the Hurricanes.

Still, Cristobal is happy with how the College Football Playoff is currently set up with 12. Small changes can still be made, in his mind, to make the season’s structure better.

“Just move everything up,” Cristobal said. “That’s all. Just finish as early as possible in January so there’s time for you to put together a team… Have one bye week and let’s roll.”

Very rarely will there be consensus agreement on an idea in college football. Especially when it comes to what the CFP looks like on a long-term basis. So, there is a little bit of disagreement between Phillips and the head coach of one of the ACC’s biggest programs.