The Big Ten has another wild College Football Playoff expansion idea

College football has a ton of problems to figure out. This sport can not agree on how to format the future of the postseason and we still aren’t sure how the transfer portal will be structured once the regular season ends in three-plus months. In all of these issues, the Big Ten is zigging while everyone else in the sport — even the SEC — is zagging.

We got another big zig from Tony Petitti’s league on Saturday. After months of discussion about a 16-team playoff, the midwest conference that stretches from coast to coast now wants…28 teams? What in heck is going on out there?

Sources: The Big Ten has begun populating an expanded College Football Playoff idea, which could include 24 or 28 teams. Just an idea at this point. pic.twitter.com/0NlTQ1BN8F

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 16, 2025

Multiple 20+ team CFP models are under discussion, deriving from Big Ten, sources tell @YahooSports, as ESPN reported. They feature as many as 7 AQs for each SEC/B1G, 5 ACC/B12, 2 G6 & 2 at-large.

Discussions are *very* early. Could trigger conference title game eliminations.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) August 16, 2025

The good folks on social media are not responding well to this latest proposal. Just go check the mentions if you do not believe me. The vocal majority blasted Petitti for his 4+4+2+2+1 model for a 16-team format that guaranteed eight total bids for the Big Ten and SEC. Even SEC coaches went in another direction during spring meetings in April after seeing data that showed that most years their conference would get more than four bids so there was no need for auto bids. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was very outspoken during talking season abut wanting the 5+11 model. Now the Big Ten is aggressively going in another direction.

The deadline for the 2026 College Football Playoff is Dec. 1 to finalize the format for next year’s tournament after another year with the 12-team model in 2025. Odds are now extremely high that we get an additional year with 12 teams before a compromise can be reached by all power conference commissioners on the future of the postseason. A recent memorandum of understanding has granted the Big Ten and SEC the authority power to determine the future of the playoff but no decision can be made unless these two sides agree. I’m not sure the SEC is going to love this new wild tournament idea.

What does this mean for the near future? Well, Petitti appears to be done with any 16-team models and the SEC will most likely stay with an eight-game conference schedule in 2026.