If the powers that be achieve their goal of expanding the College Football Playoff to 16 teams, the Washington Huskies and Jedd Fisch stand to be one of the biggest beneficiaries.
According to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports on Thursday, the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference continue to push for both leagues to receive four automatic qualifying bids to the playoff each year.
In the Big Ten/SEC-led expanded playoff model, the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference would receive two automatic bids, and the last remaining bid would go to the Group of Six.
With UW growing into more of a traditional Big Ten team ahead of Fisch’s second season in Seattle — specifically adding necessary depth along both trenches through the transfer portal — come expectations to get the football program back to where it was just two years ago: competing for a national championship.
Following a 10-year run from 2014 to 2023 when the CFP only included four teams, the field expanded to 12 in 2024 to widespread support throughout the sport.
UW and Oregon are tied for the third-most playoff appearances (two) of schools in the Big Ten, behind only Ohio State (six) and Michigan (three), while three other programs — Penn State, Michigan State, and Indiana — each have one.
This coming fall Fisch and the Huskies will face three of those six schools, in addition to Illinois — expected to be a preseason top 25 team — and travel to a historic venue in Camp Randall against Wisconsin on Nov. 8, which means in order to be in contention for one of the 12 playoff spots there will only be room for likely two losses.
If the field does expand to 16 in 2026, as ESPN College Football Insider Pete Thamel reported on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday, 2025 will be the last season of the 12-team format. That could also make the new annual UW-Oregon regular season finale have even more at stake if it becomes a play-in game for the CFP.
