The landscape of college football is continually evolving, and the last few years have seen rapid changes. The chaos began in 2021 when the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns decided to announced their move from the Big 12 to the SEC. The move saw conference realignment move like a wildfire.
On top of the conference realignment, which the Sooners were at the forefront of, Name Imagine and Likeness ran rampant and the transfer portal feels much more like a pro sports free agency. The College Football Playoffs are going to start a new 12-team format in 2024, but the playoffs could soon see another shakeup with more expansion.
In a rapidly growing world of college football, the committee is exploring the idea of a 14-team playoff format, which would hypothetically start in 2026. The new format would see the SEC and Big Ten — the two premier college football conferences — each get a first-round bye for the respective conference champions in that season. They would each get three automatic bids from the top teams in the conferences, with the Big 12 and ACC both getting two automatic bids. The highest-ranked Group of Five team will also get an automatic bid, leaving three at-large spots open for the next highest-ranked programs.
Evidently, this favors Oklahoma, who is moving to the SEC next season. They would be more likely to make the playoffs as one of the top three teams in the SEC, though that will remain a big challenge in the stacked conference.
Of course, the expanded playoffs aren’t the only changes coming to college football. As the Sooners head to the most talented conference in the sport, they’ll also likely be immersing on-field helmet headset communication to the booth, a two-minute warning and tablets on the sidelines and at halftime.
As time rolls on, college football adds more and more features to make the sport more similar to the NFL. The on-field and off-field product is both giving a pro football feel, and the more the sport evolves, the more it will continue to feel that way.
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