The College Football Playoff is close to expanding to 24 teams. On3 has reported 19 at-large bids plus automatic qualifiers for the four power conferences and the Group of Six champion, with first- and second-round games on campus. The move follows the SEC’s nine-game conference schedule and the Big Ten’s plan for 10 power-conference games.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis called it the first decision in years that gave fans something back, and said it raises the standard in Oxford rather than lowering it. Ole Miss should be a playoff team every season, Willis argued, and missing a 24-team field would be an abject failure.
Willis said the bowl season has been dead for a decade and no postseason exists outside the playoff, leaving the sport to rebuild something worth playing for. A bigger bracket does not devalue the regular season, he argued; it relocates the stakes, because the elimination games involve different teams. The SEC gained nothing by going to nine conference games once the automatic-qualifier model collapsed.
Weekly guest Tom Vanderford named bowl opt-outs as the cost of the current structure, asking how many LSU players would skip a second-tier bowl with the draft ahead. Willis said a home playoff game has no equivalent, citing December’s win over Tulane in Oxford. On Missouri, Willis would leave the secondary alone rather than rotate it, keeping Jaylon Braxton inside and Dante Core and Dorian Barney outside.
Ole Miss hosts Missouri on Saturday as a six-and-a-half-point favorite. Willis said Edwin Joseph had tightrope surgery and will not play, with Texas a possible return. Vanderford said the game hinges on the Ole Miss defense holding the Missouri run game under 100 yards; Willis said that produces a two-touchdown win. Both predicted Ole Miss 38, Missouri 31.
Photo: Pete Golding, January 1, 2026, at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 16, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.