Just one year into the NCAA's 12-team College Football Playoff, one major conference is already looking to expand the postseason again.

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, the Big Ten has begun floating the idea of a 24 or 28-team playoff. This would nearly double the current tournament field.

"Just an idea at this point," Thamel reiterated on X (formerly Twitter).

Ironically, this comes less than a month after Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said at SEC Media Days that he'd be in favor of expanding the playoff to up to 30 teams.

Here's some more info on the Big Ten's idea, via Thamel on X:

"It proposes eliminating the conference title games and having a large number of auto bids for all four power leagues. For example, in a 28-team model that was proposed, auto bids would go to the Big Ten and SEC (7 each), ACC and Big 12 (5 each). There’s also two bids for leagues outside the power 4 and still two at large teams.

"Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti ran the idea by his own league on Wednesday. It has begun being shared by others. It is an evolved idea from play-in games, and it gives more access and inventory. The idea is in very early stages. It comes from the Big Ten’s intent of keeping the conferences races meaningful and making November regular season football meaningful across the leagues. Also, it incentivizes strong non-conference games. The 28-team format would put 20 CFP games on campus, which would accentuate the success of that from last year’s CFP. The CFP Committee would seed the field and pick the at-larges."

While the early stages of this proposal from the Big Ten would undoubtedly be exciting for fans—and a moneymaker for universities—a grueling, 24+ team postseason would certainly not be the best thing for the players.

For now, the CFP remains at 12 teams. The 2025 season will begin this coming Saturday, Aug. 23 with a Week 0 matchup between Iowa State and Kansas State.

More College Football on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Big Ten Reportedly Floats Doubling College Football Playoff in Size.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate