The College Football Playoff is barreling toward a 24-team bracket as early as 2027, and the people who actually watch the sport want no part of it. A survey from The Athletic found 70% of fans oppose the expansion, but conference commissioners and their TV partners are pushing it through anyway — because the money flows uphill, not down.

This is a story about who gets paid and who gets ignored. The Big Ten has been the loudest voice demanding 24 teams, according to the Des Moines Register, pounding the drum even as the SEC countered with a 16-team proposal. Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark backed the push, declaring "more access is needed as too many great teams are still left out." The SEC, which resisted for months, suddenly reversed course. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told reporters the league now has an "openness to playoff expansion" and a decision could come "probably sooner rather than later." When the most powerful conference in the sport caves, the deal is already done.

Follow the money. The Des Moines Register reported the expanded bracket "could deliver millions in additional funding to Bowl Subdivision schools." More games mean more broadcast windows, more ad inventory, more licensing revenue. The Ventura County Star captured the fan reaction in plain terms: "It's all about the money." They're not wrong.

The cost to fans is the regular season itself. Sports Illustrated noted that a 24-team field lets programs absorb "three or possibly even four losses during the regular season and still have a shot at the national title." That doesn't make autumn Saturdays more dramatic — it makes them disposable. Conference championship games, a staple of the sport since 1992, are expected to be eliminated entirely, per the Des Moines Register. Alabama, which has played in more SEC title games than any program in history, will simply never make that trip to Atlanta again. Tradition auctioned off without a vote.

Coaching job security is a quiet winner. The Des Moines Register identified it plainly: making the playoff easier to reach insulates underperforming coaches at Power Four programs. An 8-4 season that once got a man fired now becomes a "playoff berth" to sell recruits and athletic directors. mediocrity gets a trophy.

The Deseret News reported that critics like Josh Pate "hates" the idea, noting that previous expansions from two to four and four to 12 had "supermajority public support behind it." This one doesn't. Seventy percent opposition is not a divided public — it's a mandate being ignored.

The Big Ten did extract one concession: teams would be required to schedule a Power Four nonconference opponent, addressing the SEC's complaints about schedule strength. But that's a fig leaf. The real negotiation was over revenue distribution, and the conferences that pushed hardest for expansion are the ones positioned to profit most.

College football went from two teams playing for a title to 24 in under two decades. Each expansion was sold as "more access." Each one diluted what made the sport's regular season the best in American sports. The people in the taverns — the fans — keep saying no. The people in the boardrooms keep counting the cash.

The open question is whether a sport that keeps selling off its traditions to feed its television partners will still have fans left to watch.