ACC’s Jim Phillips says ESPN wants CFP capped at 16 teams
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ESPN does not want the College Football Playoff to go beyond 16 teams, according to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who confirmed Wednesday that the Worldwide Leader has been making its preferred playoff size known directly to conference commissioners.
“ESPN has been pretty clear with all of us that they’d like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16,” Phillips said, per Andy Staples.
ACC commish Jim Phillips:
“ESPN has been pretty clear with all of us that they’d like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16.”
Yet ACC is supporting 24.
— Andy Staples (@AndyStaples) May 13, 2026
Meanwhile, the ACC — the same ACC whose games air exclusively on ESPN — supports a 24-team format.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says the league’s football coaches and ADs support expanding to a 24-team College Football Playoff. Says when you leave worthy teams out, you need to tweak format. Cites 2023 Florida State (in 4 team context) and 2025 Notre Dame (in 12 team context)
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) May 13, 2026
No final decisions on expansion are expected soon, but that hasn’t stopped the stakeholders from making their preferences known. Phillips’ comments put a public face on what Yahoo Sports reported last month, that ESPN executives had privately dismissed the 24-team format. ESPN holds exclusive broadcast rights to the College Football Playoff up to a 14-team format, a portion of which it has sublicensed to TNT. Beyond 14 teams, additional playoff games go to the open market, which is exactly why the network would very much prefer to keep the entire postseason for itself.
That context makes Fox’s enthusiasm for expansion easy to understand. Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks publicly endorsed the 24-team format at a Sports Business Journal conference last month, consistent with the Big Ten’s longstanding push for 24 or even 28 teams. Fox owns a controlling stake in the Big Ten Network and possesses the conference’s lead broadcast package, yet its college football season ends on Thanksgiving weekend. A 24-team bracket gives Fox access to December and January playoff inventory it currently has no path to.
In addiiton to the Big Ten and ACC, the Big 12 also supports a 24-team CFP field, but one Power Four commissioner remains the lone holdout. The SEC’s Greg Sankey has consistently backed a 16-team format that preserves conference championships, a game the SEC values at roughly $80 million annually and has no interest in sacrificing. Under the CFP’s governance structure, per the memorandum of understanding each FBS conference and Notre Dame signed in 2024, both the Big Ten and SEC must agree before any format change takes effect. But behind the scenes, Fox and ESPN — each aligned with their own conference partners — will keep throwing their weight around.
The 24-team push has not been short on critics, particularly on ESPN’s own airwaves. Kevin Clark called it a “disgrace” on The Paul Finebaum Show last week, saying the people pushing expansion don’t actually like college football, while Josh Pate went further, calling it one of the most unpopular proposals in the sport’s history among the people who actually watch it.
Even with opposition from ESPN and its contributing personalities, college sports have a way of eventually getting what they want. A 24-team playoff would more than double the current format, with each additional game bringing new rights fees, advertising revenue, and inventory for whoever ends up with the broadcast package. If there is more money to be made from 24 teams — and there almost certainly is — it’s a safe bet the sport gets there eventually, even if ESPN doesn’t want it to.
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