The College Football Playoff and ESPN have reached a five-year deal expanding the field to 24 teams, locked in through 2032. Sixteen of the 24 will host a playoff game, with seeds nine through 24 opening against one another before the winners meet the top eight. Every member must also schedule 10 power-four games a year, nine in conference, one outside it.
The Locked On College Football host who convened the crossover said he opposes the 24-team field, his objection being about September rather than December. He welcomed the scheduling requirement, having criticized Indiana, Washington and Oregon for their non-conference slates, but argued those games will stop carrying the weight that made them worth playing.
His example was Ole Miss’s win over Louisville in September, a result he called huge at the time and said would matter less where nothing counts against a team until a third loss. Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis took the other side, saying the stakes have not disappeared but moved to the end of the season.
Both hosts want the conference championship game gone. Willis said the reward for winning it, a month off, became a liability, and that Ole Miss’s former head coach had said publicly he would rather not play in it. With the first playoff game a week after that date, the regular season moves up and Army-Navy keeps its slot.
Willis expects the bowls to survive as the season’s opening weekend, with the Citrus Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl becoming kickoff games, and called the 16 home playoff games a win for college towns. He also granted the cost: a 24-team field would include Ole Miss where a 12-team field would not, and he doubts the Rebels could win four or five straight.
Photo: Trinidad Chambliss, November 7, 2026, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the November 9, 2026 crossover episode carried on Locked On Ole Miss, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.