College football's rumored 24-team playoff will kill conference championship games and grind players into turf — and the only people who benefit are the network executives selling ads against the extra inventory.
Urban Meyer, who once opposed expansion, now says he accepts the new reality but warns the sport is surrendering its soul. On his podcast, The Triple Option, Meyer said: "Conference championship games are one of the most exciting things that ever happened in my lifetime, and certainly for my players. And they're gone. They're gone."
The math is simple. To wedge 24 teams into a postseason bracket without shattering what's left of student-athlete bodies, someone has to cut something. The current plan: axe conference championship games entirely. Nineteen at-large bids fill out a field that used to reward winning your conference. First-round games land on campus in mid-December — a freezing gauntlet for players, a made-for-TV event for ESPN.
Meyer, a three-time national champion, admitted he once feared expansion would "dilute the product." But parity — accelerated by NIL deals and the transfer portal — forced his hand. Nick Saban reached the same conclusion, softening his stance on expansion while drawing a hard line against 24 teams, warning the push is "purely about money and strips the game of its core traditions," as Essentially Sports reported.
Follow the money. ESPN holds the College Football Playoff broadcast rights through 2032. More games mean more inventory, more ad slots, more revenue. Universities become content farms. Players become the labor filling the screen. Nobody at the negotiating table represents the kid playing a first-round game in 15-degree weather the week before Christmas.
The collateral damage extends beyond the field. The Army-Navy Game and the Heisman Trophy Ceremony would both be pushed back a week into early December to accommodate the bracket. Tradition after tradition, cleared for airtime.
And for what? Parity is already here. Indiana — once the losingest program in college football history — won a national title under Curt Cignetti and has been even or plus in turnover margin for 31 straight games, the longest streak in major college football since at least 1995, the Chicago Tribune reported. You don't need 24 teams to find compelling stories. You need 24 teams to fill 19 at-large slots with mediocre programs that will get blown out in the first round while the network counts commercial breaks.
The 24-team model, reportedly targeting the 2027 season, guarantees automatic spots for the top four power-conference winners and the highest-ranked Group of Six champion. That leaves 19 at-large invitations — participation trophies for programs that couldn't win their league but can fill a time slot.
The question isn't whether college football will expand. The suits have already decided. The question is what's left of the sport when they're done with it.
