The College Football Playoff is expanding, again. But you already knew that, or at least you should know it by now.

Though it has not been officially announced, the SEC, Big Ten and the CFP have agreed in principle to expand the playoff field from 12 to 24 starting at the end of the 2027 regular season.

With the expansion of the playoff field comes the end of conference championship games, which first began with the SEC Championship Game in 1992. The money from the Power 4 conference championship games will now be absorbed into the CFP.

There technically will be five automatic bids and 19 at-large bids. The Power 4 conferences—SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12—will receive an automatic qualifier, along with one automatic spot for a champion from the Sun Belt, American, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac-12 and MAC.

However, in reality, the Power 4 conferences will not need an automatic qualifier to make the 24-team field. It will almost be like 23 at-large bids and one qualifier. The 23 other schools will be determined by the CFP committee’s rankings.

There are a lot of things that will go into the expanded playoff, and you can read those changes in Ross Dellenger’s article on Yahoo.com.

 But what does the new CFP format mean for Clemson? What does it mean for the ACC?

It gives the conference the opportunity to have more than two teams in the CFP each year. It also means two losses will not doom a season, like it does now, and in some years three losses will be good enough to get a team or two into the playoff.

In the 12-team format, Clemson and SMU made it the first year, which led to the controversy that started the conversations of expanding the playoff. Last year, Miami was the only team to make the 12-team field from the ACC, but it got in as an at-large bid.

The Hurricanes took advantage of that opportunity and rode the wave all the way to the championship game.

Though Clemson, technically, can make it to the 12-team CFP this year, it is highly unlikely it make it as an at-large bid, even if they do finish the regular season 10-2.

Using the current AP poll, as if it was the CFP rankings, Miami, Wake Forest and SMU would make the playoffs. Miami, of course, earning the automatic bid, while Wake Forest (18) and SMU (23) get in as at-large teams and, because of seeding, will likely be on the road. The Hurricanes would earn a first-round bye.

The way I see it, the ACC and Big 12 will likely be sitting around that four-to-three team range in most years, while the SEC and Big Ten will likely clean up the rest of the spots.

Here is the pivotal point to all of this, and how it pertains to Clemson. You have to think, with expansion going to 24 teams and the ACC getting anywhere from three to four spots, you have to think Clemson should be able to land inside the top 4 of the ACC in most years.

If it can’t, then something is wrong.