Sources: College football coaches throwing support behind 24-team CFP format

Conference championship games would be eliminated and the playoff, presumably, would start immediately after the regular season — a long-discussed shift in the postseason calendar to open a path for the national title game, now played the third week of January, to return to the second Monday in the month.

To that end, coaches also recommended that the regular season should include one, not two, bye weeks and that the minimum number of days between games be six — moves that they believe will also help shift up the playoff calendar.

But not everyone is leaping toward a 24-team playoff format. There are hurdles.

For instance, the FBS conference championship games fetch a $250 million value that must be recouped from an expanded playoff field. CFP media consultants are in the process of delivering a financial valuation of a 24-team field. Estimates range widely, from $300-700 million in additional revenue for the new 10 games (ESPN owns two of the new games under its current contract with the CFP).

CFP commissioners are next scheduled to meet in person in mid-June.

The valuation may go a long way in swinging the support of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and his university presidents — long public proponents of a 16-team playoff that eases the sport into greater expansion in the future. In fact, SEC and Big Ten officials discussed last year moving to a 16-team format for a temporary stretch (two to three years) before expanding beyond 16. However, Petitti and Big Ten members declined the move, leaving the playoff at 12 for 2026.

But there are more hurdles aside from money.

The date of Army-Navy, one of the most-watched college football games annually, presents a problem. The game is traditionally played in a standalone window on the second Saturday in December, before the NFL begins playing on Saturdays — a time slot that each academy and American commissioner Tim Pernetti has fought to keep.

However, the first or second round of a 24-team playoff would be scheduled for that Saturday, presenting two issues: (1) Army or Navy’s exclusion from the postseason field; and (2) difficulty in scheduling playoff games around the game’s exclusive, four-hour standalone window, of which U.S. President Donald Trump ordered to continue as part of an executive order.

However, officials from the Army and Navy are at least exploring the idea of moving the game. Possibilities include shifting the game into what is now conference championship weekend if the title games are discontinued. That only works, though, if the expanded playoff begins the second week of December.

Army coach Jeff Monken, a member of the AFCA Board, has suggested playing the game on Thanksgiving week. While that solves most issues, it presents others, including transporting thousands of cadets and midshipmen on a holiday week to neutral-site game. Such a shift may also impact the viewership of the game on CBS, which holds an exclusive, lucrative deal to televise the matchup.