ESPN insider Heather Dinich updates where College Football Playoff stands on expansion to 14, 16 teams

On Thursday, the College Football Playoff management committee announced that 2026 playoff will follow a straight-seeding format. This means that the CFP will be seeded solely based on the CFP selection committee’s rankings, 1-12.

This past season, the four highest-ranked conference champions received the top four seeds and byes. This could include a Group of Six team that ranked higher than a Power Four conference champion. The other seven teams were at-large selections.

While most fans are seemingly excited about the format change, they are hungry to see more teams have a chance at the national title. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, ESPN’s Heather Dinich weighed in on the likelihood of the CFP management committee expanding the format to 14 or 16 teams.

“There is some consideration for 16, and part of the reason for that is to allow for more at-large teams. Allow for Notre Dame, obviously, which has some protection in the future iterations of the next contract of the College Football Playoff,” Dinich said. “So I would think it would be 14 or 16.

“It certainly seems like there’s some momentum for 16. But I’m telling you, I’m not going to try to predict the automatic qualifiers because there’s going to be some pushback. There already is pushback, not only from within the room, but there can be some political pushback, as well, as far as outfits, people in Congress, all the way up to the top.”

When Dinich said automatic qualifiers, she was referring to the formula that the CFP selection committee would use to give teams bids in the playoff. According to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the SEC and Big Ten are pushing for a 16-team format.

The two powerful conferences want the 16-team format to follow a “4-4-2-2-1” model. In layman’s terms, the SEC and Big Ten would each receive four automatic bids, the ACC and Big 12 would each receive two and the highest-ranked Group of Six team would receive one. The three other teams in the format would be at-large selections.

Although the SEC and Big Ten tend to hold the most weight in these conversations, the ACC and Big 12 reportedly haven’t been shy to fight against this proposal. Instead, Dellenger reports that ACC and Big 12 have lobbied for a “4-4-3-3-1” playoff model.

This isn’t the first time that the SEC and Big Ten have thrown their weight around to gain an advantage. Last February, the two powerhouse conferences “threatened to leave the CFP if not granted both significant revenue in a new distribution model and authority over any future format,” per Dellenger.

The eight other conferences and Notre Dame bent the knee to the request. Thus, the future of the CFP will likely come down to the viewpoint of SEC and Big Ten officials.