ACC’s Jim Phillips says ESPN wants CFP capped at 16 teams

Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

ESPN does not want the College Football Playoff to go beyond 16 teams, according to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who confirmed Wednesday that the Worldwide Leader has been making its preferred playoff size known directly to conference commissioners.

“ESPN has been pretty clear with all of us that they’d like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16,” Phillips said, per Andy Staples.

Meanwhile, the ACC — the same ACC whose games air exclusively on ESPN — supports a 24-team format.

No final decisions on expansion are expected soon, but that hasn’t stopped the stakeholders from making their preferences known. Phillips’ comments put a public face on what Yahoo Sports reported last month, that ESPN executives had privately dismissed the 24-team format. ESPN holds exclusive broadcast rights to the College Football Playoff up to a 14-team format, a portion of which it has sublicensed to TNT. Beyond 14 teams, additional playoff games go to the open market, which is exactly why the network would very much prefer to keep the entire postseason for itself.

That context makes Fox’s enthusiasm for expansion easy to understand. Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks publicly endorsed the 24-team format at a Sports Business Journal conference last month, consistent with the Big Ten’s longstanding push for teams. Fox owns a controlling stake in the Big Ten Network and possesses the conference’s lead broadcast package, yet its college football season ends on Thanksgiving weekend. A 24-team bracket gives Fox access to December and January playoff inventory it currently has no path to.