
Phillip Fulmer opposes a 24-team playoff for Tennessee, despite previously supporting playoff expansions. He believes that while a 16-team format may be acceptable, a 24-team bracket is excessive.
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Surprising reason why Phillip Fulmer opposes 24-team playoff for Tennessee
Tennessee wouldâve made as many as 13 College Football Playoff appearances in 16 seasons under coach Phillip Fulmer if a 24-team bracket existed back then.
Perhaps that realization helped turn Fulmer from a playoff critic to a supporter in recent years. He grew to like the four-team playoff and eventually the 12-team format. And he could be in favor of expanding to 16 teams.
But a 24-team playoff? That may be one step too far for the last coach to lead the Vols to a national championship.
âI donât know what theyâre going to do. (SEC) commissioner (Greg) Sankey is pretty dead set on sticking with 16 teams (in an anticipated expansion). I think that's a good number," Fulmer said. "But if you go to 24, you might as well let everybody in because youâre almost taking the whole top 25. I wouldnât like that.â
Fulmer shared his thoughts with Knox News while promoting his annual charity golf tournament, which has raised more than $3 million for Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley.
The 27th annual Phillip Fulmer Golf Classic will take place at Avalon Golf and Country Club on May 8. An online auction will be held May 4-8 at fulmerauction.com.
The College Football Playoff will remain at 12 teams in the 2026 season, but thereâs momentum to expand it as early as 2027.
The Big Ten wants a 24-team format, including the 23 highest-ranked teams and one guaranteed spot for a Group of Six mid-major conference school. The SEC leadership wants a 16-team format, including five conference champions and 11 at-large bids.
But UT coach Josh Heupel told On3.comâs Chris Low that a 24-team playoff âmakes senseâ in this era, and other SEC coaches like Georgiaâs agree. UT athletics director Danny White has long been a proponent of the , including when he was athletics director at UCF.
Phillip Fulmer believes that a 24-team playoff is excessive, despite his support for smaller playoff expansions.
Tennessee could have made as many as 13 College Football Playoff appearances in 16 seasons if a 24-team bracket had existed.
Phillip Fulmer has supported the four-team playoff and the 12-team format, and he is open to a 16-team playoff.
Phillip Fulmer is the last coach to lead the Tennessee Volunteers to a national championship.

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Fulmer admits he could change his mind. Heâs done it before.
âI wasnât for any type of playoff back in the day,â Fulmer said. âBut after seeing it play out, I think itâs a really great thing. So any playoff benefits a team that loses early in the season but gets better and better.â
The intriguing question is whether Tennessee footballâs heyday wouldâve been better or worse if a playoff had been around.
Playing out the what-if scenarios is a fun exercise when considering programs like Tennessee that won at a consistent level in an era before the playoff.
A deep dive by Knox News in 2023 revealed that the Vols wouldâve made a 12-team playoff twice in the 1980s, eight times in the 1990s and twice in the 2000s.
Some of Fulmerâs best teams couldâve made a run through a playoff bracket, especially those with star quarterback Peyton Manning that were only derailed by a loss to Florida. Of course, Fulmerâs 1998 team may not have won the national title if it had go through a bracket unblemished.
Fulmer is aware of both possibilities.
âThere was â95, â97, â99, â01, and I may be missing one,â said Fulmer, listing some of his national title contenders that came up short. âBut in â98, I didnât want to play any more games (after winning the BCS national championship game over Florida State).â
That being said, thereâs a strong case that Tennesseeâs 1998 team was built for a playoff run. It had a balanced attack, a veteran coaching staff, a lockdown defense, depth at every position and a physical style of play that wouldâve held up over multiple games.
Fulmerâs Tennessee teams wouldâve made a 16-team playoff eight times in 16 seasons.
His Vols wouldâve made a 24-team playoff either 12 or 13 times. His 1994 squad was ranked 24th in the coaches poll but unranked in the AP poll going into the postseason, and thereâs no way to know where a CFP selection committee wouldâve placed it.
But it makes sense that Fulmer would look down on teams barely making the bracket in a 24-team field. His teams wouldâve earned a first-round bye seven times in his first 11 seasons at UT in a 24-team bracket. Adding teams during those seasons would've watered down the field.
Notably, UT also wouldâve made a 24-team playoff in six of the last eight seasons of Johnny Majorsâ coaching tenure before Fulmer took over in 1993.
Of course, judging the past through the lens of the present isnât a precise exercise. There was no transfer portal or NIL back then. And some national title contenders were in the now-defunct conferences like the Big 8, Big East and Southwest Conference.
But in the near future, programs like Tennessee could see their playoff hopes determined by the size of the bracket.
The auction for the Fulmer charity tournament will be open from 9 a.m. on May 4 to 6 p.m. on May 8. Notable items include a two-person package to the 2026 Lexus Champions for Charity National Championship at Pebble Beach, Tailgate Tennessee Touchdown package at Circle Park, Harrahâs Cherokee Casino Resort golf package and a Disney World VIP package valued at $10,000.
Former UT players will join Fulmer at the tournament: Al Wilson, Deon Grant, Carl Pickens, Fred White, Robert Peace, Kelly Ziegler, Chris White, Jani Trupovnieks.
All proceeds benefit 27 Boys & Girls Clubs in Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Knox, and Loudon Counties.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter*@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.*
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Phillip Fulmer opposes 24-team CFP as former Tennessee football coach