Potential 24 team playoff changes metric of success for USC
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The College Football Playoff will be made up of a 12-team field for the third consecutive season in 2026. The USC football team still hasn’t made the CFP since it was founded in 2014 as a four-team playoff, even despite the expansion to 12 teams.
USC won’t get to try and compete for a spot in a 16 team playoff this season, despite ongoing talks throughout the offseason that expansion may be happening. But, according to the most recent reports, the Trojans could face an even easier path to the playoff than they could have hoped in 2027, as the Big Ten and others are exploring the concept of expanding the CFP to a whopping 24 teams.
However, that could lead to the elimination of a beloved tradition in USC football history: winning the conference championship game. Conference title games would likely cease to exist if the CFP expands to 24 teams.
Zachary Neel of College Sports Wire has all the details in a new article:
“The landscape of college football has been changing rapidly over the past decade, with the introduction of the College Football Playoff, the transfer portal, and shifts in name, image, and likeness completely remaking the sport as we know it,” Neel wrote. “It doesn’t appear that the change is going to stop any time soon, either.”
“According to a new report from ESPN, the Big Ten Conference is exploring a potential pitch to change the College Football Playoff, which recently shifted from four teams to 12 teams in 2024. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that the Big Ten is considering a 24-team playoff model, which would feature a 23+1 selection process and an additional weekend of on-campus CFP home games. This change would also eliminate conference championship games, should it be approved.”
“According to the letter obtained by ESPN, the format and scheduling would be as follows:
- First Round: Second Weekend of December (On Campus)
- Second Round: Third Weekend of December (On Campus)
- Quarterfinals: New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (Bowl Sites)
- Semifinals: Second Weekend in January (Bowl Sites)
- Championship: Mid-January (Neutral Site)”
It’s certainly a storyline we will continue to monitor at Trojans Wire, as it greatly affects the future outlook of the USC program and how Trojan fans define a successful season.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Big Ten, others explore 24-team College Football Playoff Format
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