The College Football Playoff Race Is Chaotic Because of Greed

The restructuring of college football conferences, including significant expansions in the Big Ten, ACC, and SEC, has complicated the landscape for the upcoming 12-team College Football Playoff. With conferences now hosting up to 18 teams, the lack of direct competition among many teams has led to imbalanced schedules and complex tiebreaker scenarios. As a result, there is growing support for expanding the playoff field to 16 or more teams to accommodate the new dynamics.

Currently, the playoff race is highly competitive, with multiple teams in contention for conference championships across the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12. This has resulted in confusion among fans and raised questions about the fairness of the existing playoff model.

The SEC and ACC are planning to add a ninth league game in 2026, but concerns remain about the imbalance in schedules. There are suggestions to return to divisional play to provide clearer pathways to conference championships, although the financial incentives of existing conference championship games make changes unlikely.

The expansion