Sports

Sources: College Football Playoff to remain at 12 teams for 2026 season

January 23, 2026

Story byNick BrombergSenior writerFri, January 23, 2026 at 3:01 PM UTC·3 min readThe College Football Playoff will stay at 12 teams for the 2026 season. Sources told Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger that college football’s conference commissioners could not agree on an expanded format for the postseason ahead of Friday’s deadline set by ESPN. That lack of an agreement means the playoff will include five conference champions and seven at-large teams for the third straight season. It’s pretty clear that those in charge of college football want to expand the CFP again. They just can’t agree on how they want to do it.

Sources: College Football Playoff to remain at 12 teams for 2026 season

Credit: Yahoo

Key Highlights

The Big Ten and SEC hold the decision-making power for the playoff.
The Big Ten wants to double the size of the playoff to 24 teams.
The SEC wants a 16-team playoff that adds four at-large teams.
There’s been no common ground.
Yet. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe wrangling on the playoff format lasted for much of the 2025 season and is set to continue until the playoff inevitably expands … until the SEC and the Big Ten come to an agreement.

Sources

Sources: College Football Playoff to remain at 12 teams for 2026 season

This quick summary is automatically generated using AI based on reports from multiple news sources. The content has not been reviewed or verified by humans. For complete details, accuracy, and context, please refer to the original published articles.

Sources: College Football Playoff to remain at 12 teams for 2026 season

Key Highlights

Sources

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