Coe: More football is good, so bring on 24-team CFP

Published 7:30 pm Thursday, May 28, 2026

“Why do you hate football so much?”

I pulled myself away from aiming at the cue ball on a pool table at a long-since-gone sports bar called The Endzone along Highway 99 in Kent, Washington, and looked up to see if the old guy was talking to me.

I say “old,” but back in 1998, he was probably younger than I am now. He wore a Don James-style purple Huskies hat with a yellow “W,” and had the requisite 1990s goatee. He stared at me, awaiting my response. Turns out he’d heard my rant about college football bowl games. My buddies and I were in our mid-20s, back when we knew everything.

“Huh?” I asked.

“You said there are way too many bowl games,” he said. “Why do you hate football so much?”

I would have accused him of eavesdropping, but we were a couple of pitchers in, and our volume knobs turned all the way up.

“Do we really need an Insight.com Bowl? A Micron PC Bowl? And why the hell is there a bowl game in Idaho?” I said, repeating the speech from earlier, as my friends likely rolled their eyes.

“No one said you have to watch it,” he said, calmly. “You seem to think you know a lot about football, so I assume you like the sport. So, why is more such a bad idea? More football — good. Less football — bad.”

I’m exaggerating only slightly if I say that’s become my life’s mantra.

I’m not the old guy in the bar at this particular moment, but I am the old sports writer in your corner of the Internet asking a similar question I was asked almost 30 years ago.

If you like football so much, why do you want fewer College Football Playoff games?

The common response I hear — as the power conferences argue about how many CFP teams should be invited to the party — is that it’s “Way too many teams.”

It’s similar to my argument in 1998, when there were 22 bowl games, up from 18 bowls two years earlier. “Why are 44 teams playing in bowl games?” I ranted.

And here I am today, calling for a 24-team CFP bracket in 2027.

Only one postseason game truly mattered in 1998, the first year of the BCS national title, which I’m assuming was another sports rant subject for me that evening and many others. Tennessee beat Florida State 23-16 in the Jan. 4, 1999 title game at the Fiesta Bowl. Prior to that, the top two teams rarely met before sportswriters and coaches voted for a national champion.

A bowl game after Jan. 1? Another rant…

If you’d told the know-it-all 1990s version of me that there would be 47 postseason games in 2026-26, and that the Washington Huskies quarterback was hauling in $4 million-plus, I’d have asked the bartender to cut you off and call you a cab. There were 35 bowl matchups plus 12 CFP matchups during the past season. I’ll admit I didn’t watch many of the non-CFP bowl games with any high level of attention.

I’m also largely out when it comes to conference championship games. Yes, it meant the football world to UW fans when Washington beat Oregon in the 2023 Pac-12 title game. In a 12-team field, though, both would have been in with only seeding and bragging rights on the line that day in Las Vegas. With a 24-team playoff, those conference title games would be eliminated because there’s not room on the calendar.

Good riddance.

So, count me in for more meaningful football. Yeah, there will be duds, though I’m not sure how many will reach the level of eggs Oregon laid the past two seasons. It does seem true, though, that the James Madisons and Boise States will never win a title, and much of the cream will rise to the top.

But teams 9-24 matched up in the first round? Maybe you’re out, but I am so, so in. Sign me up for first-round games like these:

• No. 17 Arizona at No. 16 USC

• No. 18 Michigan at No. 15 Utah

• No. 23 Iowa at No. 10 Miami

• No. 19 Virginia at No. 14 Vanderbilt

• No. 19 Georgia Tech at No. 11 Notre Dame

Maybe none of them get beyond the second round, but give me more win-or-go-home football games in December.

The other potential games from last season — No. 24 JMU at No. 9 Alabama, No. 20 Tulane at No. 13 Texas and No. 21 Houston at No. 12 BYU — would have probably been just some background noise like a lot of modern-day bowl games.

But it’s still football. And, old man from The Endzone, if you’re reading this, I do not hate football.

Why not go with 16?

It will take 24 to convince both the SEC and Big Ten to get rid of the conference title games. Those games averaged about 17 million viewers apiece in 2025, in part because they involved brands Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State, as well as the storylines and alumni base of Indiana.

Those games were watched because it was football on TV on Dec. 6 involving big names. The first-round games played Dec. 19-20 in the 12-team playoff ranged from 4.3 million viewers (JMU at Oregon) to 15 million (Alabama at Oklahoma).

Put the first round two weeks earlier, and I imagine games involving brands will surpass the conference title games, but that remains to be seen. The largest proponent of the 24-team plan is the Big Ten, citing the need to replace conference title game revenue with extra playoff games. A 16-game bracket would actually lose income, according to Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti.

With the CFP fate being fully in the hands of the Big Ten and SEC, it would take both conferences agreeing on a format. The SEC has publicly expressed a desire for 16 teams.

“I just don’t think it works economically,” Petitti said earlier this month. “I don’t think it works scheduling-wise as well. I think it doesn’t create enough new inventory. And then the last piece, I don’t think it gets enough access.”

According to Petitti, the CFP will stay at 12 unless it jumps straight to 24.

“We’ve had zero conversation about 16,” he said. “Plan B is what we have now. We would stay with what we have now.”

Washington athletic director Pat Chun spoke specifically about UW’s desire to go to 24 on the May 22 Dave “Softy Mahler and Dick Fain Show on KJR Radio.

“From a Washington perspective, even though we did have success in the four-team model — more success than most — in this environment, we believe it’s better for Washington to have the most access points possible,” Chun said. “So I’ve been clear, if it’s a decision between four and 12, we’ll pick 12, if it’s between 16 and 12, we’ll pick 16 and 24 and 16 we’ll pick 24. But we as a league in the Big Ten, we’re very aligned around this 24-team model, and the next step is, the way [it is] set up is the Big 10 and the SEC have to agree on a model.”

With both conference leaders grandstanding at offseason meetings to essentially set up a winner-loser scenario for 24 vs. 16, agreement — meaning one power conference bowing to the other — may not happen any time soon. That could mean a few more years of the 12-team CFP.

Regular Season Destruction

If you’re someone who lived and died every week of the 1991 season watching the Washington Huskies, I get your point. Every game felt like the entire season was on the line — because it essentially was. That point was proven a year earlier.

On No. 3, 1990, No. 7 Washington destroyed No. 23 Arizona 54-10 while No. 1 Virginia, No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 Auburn and No. 5 Illinois all lost. Washington leapfrogged previously second-ranked Houston to move to No. 2, behind only new No. 1 Notre Dame

Everything seemed lined up for a shot at a national title with 4-5 UCLA coming to Husky Stadium a week before the regular-season finale against Washington State, except for one minor detail.

UCLA beat Washington 25-22, and any aspirations of a championship disappeared. That wound deepen when Notre Dame fell to Penn State a week later. Seven teams saw championship dreams dashed over a three-week span. Colorado and Georgia Tech, ranked ninth and 16th, respectively, prior to the carnage, ended up splitting the title when the season concluded.

So, rather than a feeling of, “Oh well, I hope we still get a bye,” as would be the case in a 12-, 16- or 24-team bracket, all seven of those teams were dead.

The following season, each Washington Huskies game carried that do-or-die intensity. Trailing 21-9 at Nebraska on Sept 21, 1991, it looked like the title dreams would be dashed early. Washington rattled off 27 straight points to the delight of Huskies fans everywhere. No. 7 Cal was throwing into the end zone late down 24-17 of a UW win on Oct. 19, and the Huskies eked out a 14-3 win at 3-5 USC three weeks later to improve to 9-0.

Much of that weight was lifted with the four-team CFP in 2014, and certainly when it went to eight and then 12 teams. The flipside of lost intensity with each game is that power conference teams can lose two games and still have a chance at the 12-team playoff. The excitement shifts from the top few teams to those teams ranked in the 10-30 area. There are pros and cons to all formats, though it’s clear that more fanbases will be engaged much deeper into the season with more slots.

This is why the NFL and MLB have expanded significantly over time, something Petitti has experienced firsthand.

“When I was at [Major League] baseball, we never had to convince anybody that keeping more teams in the race is better for everybody and the fans, like we never had to do that,” he said. “I feel like in this space, like we’re kind of being asked to do that. It’s almost counterintuitive. I think that more teams alive as late as possible is a fundamental way that I thought about it when we’re changing the playoff schedule.”

Not Enough Good Teams

One argument for not expanding is that there’s no desire to see more James Madisons and Tulanes in the bracket.

Don’t worry — that’s not going to happen. Allowing more Group of 6 teams in is not any part of the goal. This is about getting 9-3 Big Ten and SEC teams in, and perhaps even the occasional 8-4 program if its schedule was strong enough. While it’s unlikely that a team ranked in the teens or twenties could win it all, No. 10 Miami did just play in the CFP title game last season.

Are we sure No. 11 Notre Dame or No. 13 Texas couldn’t have won a couple of games?

I will also be curious to see how the landscape changes over the next few years. More SEC and Big Ten schools are investing in football, and that could mean some parity among the top halves of those conferences. That’s how a team like Indiana goes from the losingest programs in college football history to winning a national title.

I’ll admit, I don’t think teams ranked in the twenties are going to win one any time soon, but we will see a mid-teens team make a run in a 16- or 24-team bracket within the next five years. While the talent is shifting out of the Group of 6 to the Power 4, it is spreading out among more second-tier power programs as players look around for the best chance at revenue share, NIL and playing time. Alabama and Ohio State will still get their guys. But they won’t be able to sign and keep all the guys.

Even if there aren’t 24 deserving teams, I ask again, “Why do you hate football so much?”

I don’t remember people talking about contracting after the 2024-25 NFL postseason had the following scores: 27-9, 22-10, 55-23 and 40-22.

Were people screaming about too many teams when Seattle beat San Francisco 41-6 a few months ago?

I know, I know, apples and oranges.

Okay, let’s talk Oranges.

In the 2015 Orange Bowl, No. 1 Clemson crushed No. 4 Oklahoma 37-17, while No. 2 Alabama destroyed No. 3 Michigan 38-0. Was four too many teams?

Some other four-team CFP scores: 59-20, 42-20, 24-7, 31-0, 24-6, 30-3, 44-16, 63-28, 42-25, 31-14, 49-28, 52-24, 27-6, 34-11, 33-18, 65-7, 34-13.

Bolded scores were the blowout title games in the 10 seasons of the four-team playoff. The bottom line is that there’s no guarantee every game is going to be a classic, and the perceived top teams may not always be the top teams.

Non-conference matchups

If we’re going to be outraged about football games, how about we start with the absurd non-conference schedules played by most SEC and Big Ten teams? This is because if a team goes 10-2 with noncompetitive nonconference matchups, they’re in the 12-team field. Replace a Portland State with an Ohio State at your own peril.

Just ask Steve Sarkisian.

Texas fell 14-7 on the road to open the season at No. 3 Ohio State in a non-conference game. The Longhorns’ two other losses were SEC road games at No. 5 Georgia and at Florida. While the Florida loss was ultimately its undoing, Texas was likely in the 12-team field with a win over a nobody instead of a tight road loss to the defending national champions.

Have you looked at the Huskies’ first three 2026 games? While the Apple Cup has its charm, are you fired up about Utah State and Eastern Washington? You might be in mid-November if UW is 8-2 or 9-1 before finishing with Indiana and Oregon.

Until coaches and athletic directors trust the committee — and why would they — prepare to see a September slate of nonsense in the nonconference. While a 24-team playoff does not restore this trust, it leaves more margin for error, and allows teams a little more flexibility with scheduling A, B, and C-level competition instead of C, F, and F.

If you were excited that UW scheduled Tennessee for a home-and-home in 2029 and ‘30, don’t book those tickets quite yet. I’d be stunned if those games stay on the schedule with a 12-team playoff. Too much risk, not enough reward. Until big games come with bigger paydays or help teams get into the playoffs, they’re not going to be scheduled.

In a 24-team format, each game might not feel like walking a cliff’s edge, but more games throughout college football will hold some level of importance.

“At 24, you’re always trying to improve your résumé,” Petitti said. “So if you’re somewhere between 16 and 24, 25, the last week of the season, you’ve got to protect your spot. That’s No. 1. If you’re somewhere between 17 or 18, you’re trying to get in between eight and 16 so you can get a home game. Home games are really valuable, right?”

While I find conference commissioners blathering to be relatively gross, that makes some sense to me.

Bring on 24. I officially like football.

The story originally appeared at www.emeraldcityspectrum.com, an online publication that covers all Seattle sports teams.