Sometimes less is more, but it is soon 24-team College Football Playoff – which will be implemented next season – for the better?
Urban Meyer explained why he’s now on board with the 24-team playoff format on Week 11’s edition of the Big Noon Kickoff.
“At first, I was against it, but then you can see a lot of parity, so I’m actually in favor of it,” Meyer said of the 24-team CFP format.” My immediate reaction is, “You know what? It’s not death if you lose”. In the BCS, you lose once, you’re out. Then I was in the four-team College Football Playoff. Again, one loss, usually, you’re out.
“Now you’re in 12 teams and soon 24. In 24 teams, you lose, you keep moving.”
In the 24-team CFP, the top eight teams will get a bye in the first round, with 23 at-large bids and a spot reserved for the highest-ranked Group Six team. The Power Four conference title games will be eliminated.
The 2026 season is the third year of the 12-team College Football Playoff, with the inaugural four-team CFP debuting in 2014. The BCS National Championship Game, which pitted the two highest-ranked teams in the nation in a single title game, was simply the playoff model from 1998-2013.
Meyer coached and won championships as a head coach in both the BCS title game era (2006 and 2008 seasons with the Florida Gators) and the four-team College Football Playoff era (2014 season with the Ohio State Buckeyes).
As for the impact a loss might have had before: Meyer’s Gators entered the 2009 SEC Championship Game 12-0, but a 32-13 loss to Alabama — which featured Meyer’s Big Noon Kickoff colleague and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Mark Ingram — ended Florida’s BCS championship run.
