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After months of speculation surrounding a 24-team College Football Playoff model, all eyes now turn to next week’s SEC spring meetings, where one of college football’s most powerful conferences could ultimately determine the future of the sport’s postseason.
FOX Sports senior college football analyst Joel Klatt spent this week at the Big Ten spring meetings in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., where CFP expansion dominated conversations among coaches, athletic directors and conference executives. According to Klatt, the takeaways from those meetings were clear: Support for a 24-team playoff is much stronger than many initially thought.
While the Big Ten has discussed expansion possibilities for months now, Commissioner Tony Petitti this week publicly offered his strongest support for a 24-team CFP format.
The latest proposed model would eliminate automatic qualifiers in favor of a selection-based format featuring the top 23 teams and a representative from the Group of 6. This framework has recently gained traction within the ACC and Big 12, both of which have expressed support for the proposal.
But despite growing momentum, the spotlight now turns to the SEC, which will hold its annual spring meetings in Destin, Florida. According to Klatt, these meetings could become one of the most crucial moments in the debate on the expansion of the CFP.
“Several coaches told me that 90 percent of SEC coaches and 100 percent of SEC athletic directors supported a 24-team model for CFP expansion,” Klatt said in a clip released on an upcoming episode of “The Joel Klatt Show.”
This flies in the face of the notion that the SEC was staunchly opposed to a 24-team model. In fact, Klatt said there is a growing sense within Big Ten circles that next week’s SEC meetings could result in significant disagreements.
“That makes next week in Destin so interesting because there is a feeling, at least among the Big Ten coaches, that the meetings between Greg Sankey — the SEC commissioner — and his coaches are going to be contentious,” Klatt said.
Support for the 24-team model continued to grow beyond just the Power 4 conferences. The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), a highly influential coaching group in college football, also supported the proposal. That group includes Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, arguably the most influential coach in the SEC and one of the most powerful voices in sports.
That’s why next week’s meetings in Destin could become a turning point for the future of college football.
“The coaches will insist on one thing, and Greg [Sankey] “They publicly said something very different,” Klatt said. “They may not have consensus there in these rooms.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and his conference members could soon approve expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
Ultimately, though, the final decision might not rest solely with the coaches or conference commissioners.
As Klatt pointed out, university presidents have the final say. Sankey, who has served as SEC commissioner since 2015, works for the SEC chairman.
“If the athletic director and coaches get their presidents involved, Greg Sankey is not going to be able to push out all of his bosses,” Klatt said. “He has 16 bosses in the SEC.”
Petitti indicated this week that if the SEC supports the 24-team format, implementation could happen as early as the 2027 season.
It is not yet clear whether Sankey and the SEC will reach an agreement. But after months of speculation, the center of the college football world is poised to shift to Destin, where the next chapter of the CFP’s expansion could take shape.
