CFP, ESPN Agree to Reported $1.7B Contract for Playoff Bracket Expansion, More Details Revealed

The 12-team playoff is dead. Long live the 24-team playoff.

ESPN's Heather Dinich reported the College Football Playoff and ESPN agreed to a $1.7 billion deal that will see the postseason field expand ahead of the 2027 season.

As part of the arrangement, conference championship games for Power Four schools will end.

The top eight seeds will get a bye in the first round, up from four in the current format. There will also be an additional round of campus-site games.

Next season, the playoff field will be confirmed on Nov. 28, 2027. Meanwhile, the Heisman Trophy ceremony will now be moved up one week moving forward, with the Heisman weekend being held during December 3-5 in 2007.

This comes days after the CFP issued a statement saying a deal was "in the final stages of review." Monday's news doesn't come as a shock. The writing was on the wall.

Still, the new reality for college football is only beginning to sink in.

In broad terms, the sport hasn't changed dramatically since the inception of the playoff in 2014 and its subsequent expansion. The best teams got rewarded for their efforts, and winning your conference carried some importance.

A 24-team playoff is a dramatic recalibration.

Removing conference championships begs the question of what purpose a conference actually serves. The regular season will carry even less weight when a team can lose three games and still clinch a playoff berth. And making the playoff will become less of an achievement on its own.

A lot of fans rejoiced when college football ditched the BCS structure and adopted a true playoff. More than a decade on, it clearly wasn't the panacea some originally thought.

In due time, administrators may have to return to the negotiating table to debate over alterations to the 24-team postseason.