For some SEC football fans, making college football a tournament sport has always felt wrong. The risk is devaluing the regular-season games significantly. To an extent, the current 12-team format has already done so. A 16-team format, generally accepted by all SEC programs, feels like the maximum size field. The Big Ten wants a 24-team format, which, so far, the SEC has blocked.
The B1G recently released a 24-team bracket based on the 2025 season. The B1G labels the format as 23+1, with the 23 top-ranked teams plus one spot for the highest-ranked Group of Six team. In the 2026 season, the new Pac-12 will become the sixth Group of Six conference.
The sample bracket included seven SEC teams, six Big Ten teams, five from the Big 12, and three from the ACC. The remaining three went to two Group of Sex teams and Notre Dame.
More SEC Football Fans Engaged
There is much to like for SEC football fans. Even if in subsequent seasons the SEC qualified only six or five teams, there would likely be more than half of the league's teams still in contention into November. Four regular-season losses would not automatically exclude an SEC team from the playoff field. As in college basketball, playing for seeding would become important.
The B1G's proposal includes eight first-round byes, with eight home games in the first round and eight home games in the second round. As a 9-seed, the Alabama Crimson Tide would have opened with James Madison in Tuscaloosa, followed by Oklahoma in Norman.
The proposed format ends Power Four championship games. More than a few fans will hate losing that tradition of winning a conference championship outright, to what might become a norm of shared championships among two or more teams.
Moving to 24 teams would likely mean the death of a few more bowl games. Three have already been shut down, and several more might follow. Since many bowls have become more television events than in-person fan events, a smaller bowl list is not onerous.
As always, money concerns will shape format decisions. Lost revenue from conference championship games might be provided by expanded playoff revenue.
As long as the word 'fairness' is not used to sell the 24-team format, reluctant fans might embrace it more quickly. Like March Madness, it would be a huge sporting spectacle. In most seasons, the eventual champion would probably be considered the 'best' team. In other seasons, luck, injuries, and officiating mistakes could cause an upset in which the likely best team gets bumped from the field.
Missing from the format proposal is any suggestion to improve the Selection Committee's rankings process. Even more vagaries than past committee decisions could occur from ill-received seeding decisions.
Note: A bracket image is available here