Changes to College Football Postseason Could be Coming
By: Staff Report May 6, 2026

CLEMSON — The American Football Coaches Association wants to change the postseason of college football.

Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger reports football coaches support an expanded College Football Playoff. The AFCA voted last week to recommend that college leaders implement a playoff with more teams and discontinue conference championship games, as well as preserve the Army-Navy game’s exclusive time window.

The AFCA also voted to hold other games on Army-Navy Day and end the CFP by the second week of January.

According to Dellenger, the AFCA held their annual spring meeting last week where they adopted the recommended action items. The AFCA is expected to publicly release its decisions soon, most notable of which is the nod of support for a 24-team playoff and the elimination of league title games.

The AFCA board has no has no authority within the NCAA or the CFP, however, the board does include some prominent coaches, such as Illinois Bret Bielema, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee and Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables, a longtime assistant coach at Clemson.

In the past few weeks, the CFP’s governance committee and Notre Dame have met to discuss playoff expansion, while ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, the Big 12’s Brett Yormark and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua have swung their support to a 24-team playoff.

Dellenger also points out that conference championship games, such as the ACC Championship Game, would be eliminated and the playoff might start immediately after the regular season. This a long-discussed shift in the postseason calendar to open a path for the national title game, now played the third week of January, to return to the second Monday in the month.

What could cause this all to falter? Conference championship games are a $250 million value that must be recouped from an expanded playoff field.

CFP media consultants are in the process of delivering a financial valuation of a 24-team field. Estimates range widely, from $300-700 million in additional revenue for the new 10 games. CFP commissioners are next scheduled to meet in person in mid-June.