College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams: 2027 move has big impact on conference championships, Heisman

In a landscape-altering move, the College Football Playoff is officially expanding to a 24-team format for the 2027 season, sources told CBS Sports.

The field will be built with a "19+4+1" model with 19 at-large bids, four reserved for Power Four champions and one for the highest-rated Group of Six champ. First- and second-round games would be played on campuses. The quarterfinal and semifinal games will continue to be played in traditional bowls like the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl.

The move to 24 teams, long expected a formality in college football circles, will eliminate the popular and lucrative conference championship games. The SEC originated the conference championship game in 1992, and it had been an annual source of significant revenue for the conference in the neighborhood of $100 million. Last year's Alabama-Georgia SEC Championship averaged 16.9 million viewers, the seventh-most watched game of the season. The SEC announced on Monday that its 2026 conference title game would be its last.

Another significant change: The Heisman Trophy ceremony will be moving up a week to the first weekend of December. In 2027, it will happen the weekend of December 3-5. With no conference title games, there will be…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/