"We Need to Be Cautious": Steve Sarkisian Warns Against Major College Football Change

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One thing that’s clear when it comes to the college football expansion is a collective agreement to the 24-team model, except for one name: the SEC. Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has been the subject of verbal attacks from rivals Texas Tech after he complained about the difficulty of his team’s schedule when compared to theirs. But for a coach with over two decades of experience, those attacks have nothing on him.

“I just think we need to be cautious,” Sarkisian said on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams. “We need to look at some of the consequences, some intended, some unintended consequences, before we just run the 16, 20, or 24 teams, and the impact that it has on the regular season, the impact that it has on our schedule as coaches to make sure that’s what’s best for the game.

“Again, I’ve been an advocate of going back to a four-team playoff. I always felt like with the four team playoff, we knew who the really good teams were, and we knew who those four teams were, and those were the best teams. But at the same time, everybody else was still excited and and a lot of teams were ending their season with a win and could celebrate a win in their bowl games and felt like they had a good season.”

Sarkisian has been on the college football scene for almost three decades and has seen more changes happen in the past five years than in any other period. Sarkisian joined the USC Trojans in 2001 as the QB coach, two years after the introduction of the Bowl Championship Series, which featured the two highest-ranked teams. The system remained the same and was replaced by the CFP four-team format after 16 years.

Sarkisian has made his choice clear on many instances, about going back to the 4-team CFP format. According to Inside Texas’ Evan Vieth’s post on X from May, the 52-year-old coach said,

“I think there’s so many factors. I’ve gone on record saying I’d rather go back to four. Here’s my issue: I understand why people want to go to 24, but we are now in a world where fanbases are living under this umbrella of playoff or bust.

“I don’t agree with that, that’s not true. You had the opportunity to compete for a national championship during those 12 regular-season games, and I felt like when we were at four teams, those four teams were held in very high regard, and you earned your opportunity to be one of those four teams.”

In 2024, the CFP format was moved to 12 teams, a system the Longhorns had to abide by. Two years later, there are serious discussions about another expansion. The expansion is coupled with the Longhorns’ conference change from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2024. And then, there is also the prevalence of NIL deals and revenue sharing with all of these.

The Power Four conferences have been championing discussions regarding the CFP expansion for some time now. While all four conferences are in favor of the expansion, the SEC’s Greg Sankey is in favor of a 16-team model over the 24-team model pushed by the Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC.

Sarkisian is on the same page as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for the preservation of the regular season. By having 24 teams, many CFP fixtures would likely affect the regular season and reduce the importance of regular-season games, since teams can be careless with losses and still make the playoffs. The “every game matters” approach, where a single regular-season loss or poor display in a non-conference game could decide one’s playoff fate, would no longer be applicable.

If a 24-team model gets approval, it would add 12 more games to the mix overall, canceling the conference championship weekend altogether, and influencing the season-ending calendar. According to CBS Sports, “the preferred 24-team proposal reportedly includes one auto-bid, the Group of Six champion, along with 23 at-large selections as determined by the selection committee.”

The conversation cannot be limited to just one perspective, as a 24-bracket also helps solve one of the biggest crises in college football history, uneven data evaluation. Moreover, the 12 additional games will also increase the ad revenue, give more teams a fair chance at the title, and ensure that teams with multiple regular-season losses or tougher schedules still remain in contention.

Sarkisian has been fairly successful with the Longhorns in the playoffs. While he hasn’t won a national championship yet, he has led the Longhorns to two playoff appearances in five years, getting eliminated in the semifinals. He also won the Big 12 championship in 2023 and was ranked 13th in the final CFP rankings in 2025, missing out on the playoffs by just one spot.

Meanwhile, many college football head coaches have been left with no choice but to settle for the likely CFP expansion. And while Sarkisian also falls in the same category, the Longhorns coach could not help but admit his preference, implemented from the end of the 2014 season to the end of the 2023 season.

“Again, I’ve been an advocate of going back to a four-team playoff,” Sarkisian told Kay Adams. “I don’t think there are many people on that train as they are getting bigger. But I always feel like the four-team playoff, we knew who the really good teams were. And we knew who those four teams were, and those were the best teams. But at the same time, everybody else was still excited, and a lot of teams were ending their season with a win and could celebrate a win in their bowl games and felt like they had a good season.”

Making the playoffs has become a consensual metric for coaches’ success among college football programs. But contrary to Sarkisian’s preference, if CFB remained with a four-team format, his team would have missed out on the playoff in 2024, when they earned the No.5 seed.

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