College Football Playoff at 24 or NCAA Tournament at 76: Which is worse?

Hours apart, two bits of data this week summed up college athletics in 2026. The first was a survey of Big Ten football fans from The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman, in which 9 percent of them expressed support for commissioner Tony Petitti’s 24-team College Football Playoff plan.The second was a list of recommendations from the American Football Coaches Association, which included calling for the CFP to expand to the “maximum number of participants.” Neither group actually has any power to dictate terms to Petitti and his ilk, but you can guess which one of them merits any consideration. And you can probably count on 24 winning out — double the current field, which is triple what the field was in January 2024.Advertisement