A new postseason plan in 2026 will clearly feature a large field

Remember how college football’s power brokers got cold feet over a 12-team playoff plan and worried about what that might mean for the sport? Those worries no longer matter. They’re no longer worth thinking about now that USC has moved to the Big Ten.

The Big Ten and SEC are poised to swallow up even more schools with playoff aspirations. These two conferences will want to have as many playoff participants as they can manage. Moreover, because of the clout and money they have, with ESPN backing the SEC and Fox backing the Big Ten, they are in a position to call their shots when a new college football postseason plan is negotiated for the 2026 season. (The 12-year College Football Playoff deal expires after the 2025 season.)

Stewart Mandel of The Athletic offered more details on what this all means:

Is there really still going to be automatic qualifiers? The leagues are expected to begin discussions for what the next CFP iteration will look like beginning in 2026, and this time, with its ESPN contract expiring, there’s no needing a unanimous vote. The SEC and Big Ten will surely be driving the conversation, with little-to-no leverage for everyone else.

Ironically, it was Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren whose holdup to a 12-team playoff the last time around, at least publicly, was wanting to guarantee automatic berths for the Power 5 conferences. That certainly seems less necessary now. If anything, he, like SEC counterpart Greg Sankey, should want to leave open as many at-large bids as possible, because those two leagues combined will likely garner the majority of them.