College Football Playoffs Discussion (12/16/24 Team Format)

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https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skull-sessions/2026/10/164815/skull-session-ohio-state-has-yet-to-play-its-a-game-this-season-jeremiah-smith-is-an-ap-midseason-all-american-and-the

WAIT, WHAT’S HAPPENING? With the College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams, Fox Sports commentator Joel Klatt claimed a Big Ten-SEC challenge is imminent. However, Big Ten COO Kerry Kenny said, “Not so fast, my friend!”

Klatt made his claim on Dallas’ 96.7 The Ticket, sharing that the two power conferences have a scheduling agreement in place for when the College Football Playoff expands to 24 teams in 2027.

Brief tangent: Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that the CFP cannot expand beyond 24 teams under its current contract with ESPN. The earliest it could expand again is 2032.

Expand again?!

Again?!

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

But I digress.

Here’s what Klatt said on The Ticket: “The next thing that will happen almost immediately is we’re going to get scheduling agreements between the SEC and the Big Ten — top-end matchups, mid-tier matchups, low-end matchups — and we’re going to be expanding the valuable matchups in the non-conference, far surpassing what we have now.”



And here’s a paraphrase of how Kenny responded, via ESPN’s Pete Thamel: There’s no specific SEC-Big Ten scheduling agreement being announced, as has been intimated publicly. When the CFP expands to 24 teams beginning in 2027, the Big Ten is committed to an annual non-conference game against a Power team.

According to Thamel, the Big Ten’s commitment matches the scheduling agreements of the ACC, Big 12 and SEC. “All four power conferences have been working for weeks to ensure everyone meets the standard in 2027,” Thamel wrote. “Moving forward, the Big Ten will continue to discuss opportunities to play the SEC on a more consistent basis — along with playing the Big 12, ACC and Notre Dame.”

Ohio State is already scheduled to play Alabama in 2027 and 2028, and Georgia in 2030 and 2031, but currently lacks a Power 4 non-conference game for 2029, when it’s scheduled to play Navy, Charlotte and Youngstown State.

I wonder whether Charlotte will be the odd game out. No offense to the 49ers, but I’d imagine Ross Bjork and Co. would prefer to keep a service academy and an in-state opponent on the schedule. What do I know, though? We’re talking about college football schedules years in advance, which is kind of like Whose Line Is It Anyway?: Everything is made up and the points don’t matter.