The SEC just made a subtle but massive move. By agreeing to a 9-game conference schedule with 3 annual rivalries and 6 rotating opponents, they’ve inched the sport closer to something way bigger than most fans realize: the proposed 24-team College Football Playoff model that the Big Ten has been floating behind the scenes.

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What the 24-Team Playoff Would Look Like • Top 8 seeds: Get a first-round bye (reward for elite seasons). • Seeds 9–24: On-campus play-in games — imagine playoff football at Autzen, Happy Valley, Death Valley, Camp Randall, or Autry Field in December. • Winners advance to a traditional 16-team bracket. • Straight committee seeding, no automatic conference bids or weighted favoritism.

It’s basically March Madness energy for college football — not 64 teams, but still enough to keep every fanbase engaged until the end.

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Why This Matters for Fans

Right now the playoff has gone from 2 → 4 → 12, but it still leaves a lot of programs feeling shut out. • If you’re a Utah, Baylor, Kansas State, Ole Miss, or Oregon State fan, you probably live in that #15–25 range. Always good, never quite “elite.” In the 12-team format, you’re almost always the first cut. • With 24, suddenly you’re in the dance every year. You get your shot on the big stage. Upsets happen. Cinderella stories get written.

Think about it: March Madness has 300+ basketball teams, yet 64 still feels like a wide-open field. Football has way fewer teams at the FBS level (~133), so 24 is actually proportionally conservative.

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Why the SEC’s Scheduling Move Matters

The biggest resistance to playoff expansion has always come from the SEC and Big Ten commissioners. Why? Because the old 16-team model was tilted: • G5 would get 1 auto bid. • ACC and Big12 would get 2. • Big Ten would get 4. • SEC would get 4. • Last bid chosen by committee.

From the Big12 perspective, that basically says: “Your league isnt as good as the SEC” Why would tyey sign off on a model that undervalues his league?

But a 24-team, straight committee-seeded playoff fixes that: • No pre-slotted bids. • No conference inferiority implied. • If the SEC and Big Ten really are the two best leagues, they’ll naturally dominate the top 8 and claim the most spots anyway.

By agreeing to 9 conference games with locked rivalries, the SEC is signaling it’s comfortable feeding into a structure where:

1.    Conference championships don’t matter as much.
2.    Every league has the same pathway to fill spots.
3.    The committee decides the order — which favors stronger leagues naturally, without needing auto-bid politics.

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Big Picture

The SEC’s 9-game move isn’t just about cleaning up its schedule. It’s about future-proofing itself for a bigger playoff. The Big Ten already loves the 24-team model. The SEC is now taking a surprising step that aligns with it.

If the rest of the Power conferences and TV partners sign off, this format: • Engages all fanbases longer — no more November irrelevance. • Protects the SEC & Big Ten’s dominance without making them look greedy. • Opens the door to Cinderella runs that make March Madness what it is.

And yes, it probably ends the importance of conference championships as we know them. But with 24 playoff spots, most fans would rather see a December home playoff game than a neutral-site title game anyway.

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👉 Bottom line: The SEC’s 9-game schedule is a chess move. The 24-team playoff isn’t a pipe dream anymore — it’s building momentum. And once fans see it, they won’t want to go back.

Now do I tink they will get this done by the Dec 1 deadline no. Just because of how late it was proposed and how close we are to the tart of the new season commisioners are gonna be thinking abt the games this week not negotiating a new playoff but in the 26-27 do I see a 24 team CFP coming maybe and I hope so.