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CFP Expansion: A Simple Solution…

ljm623
14 hours ago
2 min read

October 20, 2026 - Last week, the CFP announced the expansion of the College Football Playoffs from 12 schools to 24 schools had been approved, pending final details. The vast majority of the college athletics world quickly condemned the expansion as a greedy, money-grabbing move by the SEC and Big Ten conferences with back room support from ESPN.


Now that we have had some time to digest the CFP intention, it’s time to examine options for the “have-not” conferences and their schools.


Today, we examine the first of two plausible solutions.


OPTION A: Conference Merger & Expansion

The first plausible option is a merger of the 33 schools that make up the ACC and Big-12 conferences, followed by an expansion to 40 schools, all within the NCAA.


This new conference would be reorganized into four regional divisions, each with 10 member schools. Every school would play 9 division games plus 3 out of division games. With CFP approval, the four division champions would get automatic bids into the CFP playoffs while other member schools would compete for the remaining 19 at-large slots in the CFP or bowl participation. The new conference would contract their collective media rights for regular season games.


Here is a potential conference structure. For discussion purposes, we’ll call it the American Conference.


East Division:

  1. Boston College

  2. Connecticut (UConn)

  3. Syracuse

  4. Army

  5. Navy

  6. Pittsburgh

  7. West Virginia

  8. Virginia

  9. Virginia Tech

  10. Wake Forest


South Division:

  1. North Carolina

  2. Dule

  3. NC State

  4. Clemson

  5. Georgis Tech

  6. Florida State

  7. Central Florida (UCF)

  8. South Florida (USF)

  9. Miami

  10. Tulane


Midwest Division:

  1. Cincinnati

  2. Notre Dame/Northern Illinois

  3. Louisville

  4. SMU

  5. TCU

  6. Baylor

  7. Houston

  8. Texas Tech

  9. Oklahoma State

  10. Memphis


West Division:

  1. Colorado

  2. Iowa State

  3. Kansas

  4. Kansas State

  5. BYU

  6. Utah

  7. Stanford

  8. California (Cal)

  9. Arizona

  10. Arizona State


BOTTOM LINE:

This model represents strength in numbers (40) and brings back regionalization. It also provides a national footprint while preserving regional focus and rivalries.


In part three of this series, we’ll examine a more aggressive option… a breakaway.


GO CANES!

 
 
 

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