Mario Cristobal’s concerns about a 24-team CFP now seem more serious. While commissioners like Tony Pettiti, Jim Phillips, and Brett Yormark still support expanding the playoffs, one big problem remains. And of course, it’s money because as tempting as playoff appearances sound, the question is who’s going to pay the $250+ million needed to make it happen? 

Cristobal’s point is easy to understand. If almost half the field can get in, the grind of the regular season starts to feel smaller, especially in the eyes of coaches who live and die by every Saturday.

“When ESPN made its deal for the 12-team CFP, it valued the 4 first-round games at $25M each,” Stewart Mandel of The Athletic reported. “To make a 24-team CFP work, the conferences need at least $250M, preferably $500M. Are there networks/streamers willing to pay that much for Nos. 9-24?”

That is where the talk turns from football to dollars. More teams sound great on paper, but the bill gets bigger fast when the playoffs start eating into other games that already make money.

The 12-team playoff gave more teams a real shot, and it kept late-season games alive. More fan bases stayed interested in November. It gave more access to meaningful late-season games and more fanbase engagement in November. But now the sport wants to jump from a successful 12-team setup straight to 24 teams. 

“I’m not for the 24-team thing,” Mario Cristobal said via This Is Football. “I think that’s just a lot. Like, why play a regular season then? And I’m certainly not for automatic bids. ‘Hey, this conference gets’ — like, why? It’s not a beauty pageant. Okay, it’s not a beauty contest. It’s competition. Go win, go win on the field. The guys that deserve it get in and figure it out from there.”

There are some, like Mario Cristobal, who feel that the more teams you add, the more the regular season starts losing its edge. Because it would mean a three-loss or even four-loss team earns a 24-team field, anyway. For TV partners, the issue is not just more games. It is whether adding those games makes the best matchups less special in November. And ESPN knows it, and they’re not seeing eye to eye with Fox.

ABC/ESPN has seen massive regular-season ratings since taking over the SEC’s marquee package. Last season, the network aired 10 games before the playoffs that crossed 10 million viewers, while another 24 games crossed 5 million. This is where ESPN drops its concern. 

“If you get to 24 games, are there additional teams in November games where their fan bases now have a reason to be more interested? Yes, that’s mathematically true,” one ESPN source said. “But there’s going to be less interest in what has traditionally been the top end of the sport. The negative impact of those outweighs whatever positive impact you’re going to get from the (lower) games.”

The real squeeze may come from what gets lost, not what gets added. If title games disappear, the leagues have to replace that money somehow. Fox, however, sees the situation differently. 

“If you don’t get penalized for playing those big nonconference games early, and there’s a bigger pool of teams that can get into a 24-team Playoff, the schedule gets better in September,” Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks said last month.

But another ESPN source pushed back on Fox’s idea.

“There’s no evidence in the history of the sport that if you tell a coach or a school that a high-level nonconference game means less to your chances of getting into the postseason, that they’re going to keep playing those games,” the source said. “The only way to fix the nonconference issue is to come up with some way for the ‘who you played, how you played’ to matter.”

And then comes the financial risk concerning conference championship games.

The financial burden of the 24-team expansion 

A 24-team playoff could wipe several conference title games out. And that’s where the financial burden hits. 

“The conferences still need to figure out how to replace an estimated $200-$250 million in annual combined value of their canceled conference championship games,” Mandel added in his report. “Petitti claimed the gate receipts from the 12 new on-campus games would at least account for $80 million of the tab, but the SEC’s alone is worth $100 million (which, unlike CFP revenue, it keeps for itself).”

That’s why SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is still supporting a 16-team playoff. The funny part is that Mario Cristobal and Miami already benefited from playoff expansion. The Hurricanes only just made the 12-team playoff last season after debates with Notre Dame. If the playoffs had 24 teams, they would have easily qualified. Still, he feels the current system is working fine for the most part.

“Just move everything up,” he said. “That’s all. Just finish as early as possible in January so there’s time for you to put together a team… Have one bye week and let’s roll.”

Still, the Big Ten remains fully committed to expansion. Tony Petitti said there is a “deep commitment to 24” throughout the conference and claimed league schools are willing to sacrifice conference championship games if necessary.