As the College Football Playoff continues to mull an even more expansive format, one prominent voice in the sport believes such a change, in an ideal world, would bring in a new television partner.
Famed college football broadcaster and current Fox Sports play-by-play man Tim Brando recently expressed those beliefs after reports surfaced last week that there is “growing support” from the Big Ten and SEC for an expanded 16-team playoff format. The new format would see both conferences receive four automatic bids into the playoff with the ACC and Big 12 allotted two each. The Group of Six conferences would get one automatic bid and three CFP berths would be determined on an at-large basis.
Of course, one of the natural issues with this format is the schedule. Already, the CFP ran into less-than-ideal scheduling issues during the first year of the 12-team format last season. Many football fans will recall that two first round games competed directly head-to-head with marquee NFL matchups. Expanding to 16 teams would only exacerbate that issue.
As it stands, ESPN owns exclusive rights to the CFP and sublicenses two first round games to TNT Sports. Last year, those two games were the two with direct NFL competition.
Brando has long advocated for a second CFP TV partner. And he thinks, in an ideal world, an expansion to 16 teams would make room for that. But in reality, there wouldn’t be much appetite since the additional inventory would create more conflict with the NFL.
What sadly won’t happen but should
IMO take place is a separate TV partner should be brought in. However, part of the reason it’ll likely never come up for bidding is the calendar issues the @CFBPlayoff maintains. The length of the post season adversely impacted by the @NFL… https://t.co/KHdj93RDWM— Tim Brando (@TimBrando) May 10, 2025
“[In my opinion what should] take place is a separate TV partner should be brought in,” Brando wrote. “However, part of the reason it’ll likely never come up for bidding is the calendar issues the CFP maintains.
“The length of the postseason adversely impacted by the NFL Playoffs that already compete with College Playoff games. Only if the regular season started two weeks earlier could we possibly get the CFP to the finish line at or near New Years! All the other networks have commitments to the pro game and no college playoff game can compete with the extended NFL playoffs.”
A 16-game CFP format would create some substantial challenges for scheduling, as Brando alluded to. That format would involve eight first round games, up from four in the current 12-team format. Starting the college football season a week or two earlier could certainly help avoid NFL competition as the league cannot legally play Saturday games until the third weekend of December.
Then, maybe, other broadcast partners would be more interested. One has to imagine, however, that ESPN would have exclusive rights to any additional inventory created from playoff expansion already baked into its contract. Though, surely Brando would love to see Fox get involved.
Regardless of what networks the games air on, any sort of playoff expansion will become a tricky issue to navigate from a scheduling perspective. We already saw how competing directly with the NFL went for college football the first time around, and it wasn’t pretty. Starting the college football season earlier would be a logical solution, but with a whole host of other issues (ever been to Tallahassee in August?), including NCAA regulations on when teams can begin practice and play games.
If a 16-team format is the route the CFP is headed, the sport’s power brokers will need to think long and hard about how to best align its schedule to avoid as much NFL competition as possible.
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