Paul Finebaum Is Strongly Opposed To College Football Playoff Change

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Will the College Football Playoff expand to 24 teams? We're not sure yet, but it seems to be a hot topic in the world of sports.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made headlines this Wednesday when he announced that he's in favor of a 24-team model for the CFP. This format change was initially proposed by the Big Ten.

"When you're leaving national-championship-contending teams out of the playoff, you don't have the right number. We suffered through it with Florida State when the field was four, and I know other schools have suffered for it, and I've said this very directly. Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team this year," Phillips said, via ESPN. "If you're going to ask presidents and chancellors and boards to continue to invest in their football programs, it's really important that they have hope, that they have an opportunity at the beginning of the season to get into the playoff."

While the ACC might be in favor of a 24-team field, ESPN's Paul Finebaum made it known that he's strongly against expanding the CFP. He explained why during an appearance on "Get Up" this Thursday.

"The right number is probably four, but we have 12 and we’re going to 16 or 24," Finebaum said, via On3. "24 is the worst possibility in the history of this game. Why? Because it is going to devalue, dilute, and perhaps destroy the greatest football season of them all. That’s the regular season in college football. The big games at the end of the regular season are going to be meaningless. This is not the NFL where you try to position for a Wild Card or a home field. There just simply aren’t enough good teams."

Expansion seems inevitable.

Unfortunately for Finebaum and fans who are against changing the CFP's format, it sounds like conferences want more teams in the field. In fact, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has voiced his support for a 16-team model.

"We're open to the conversation, but there are a lot of ideas out there that have to be supported with analysis and information, not speculation," Sankey said earlier this month.

The CFP for the 2026 season will consist of 12 teams. We can't make any guarantees past that though.

This story was originally published by The Spun on May 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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