Why Kentucky coach Will Stein favors 24-team College Football Playoff
Why Kentucky coach Will Stein favors 24-team College Football Playoff
Payton Titus, Louisville Courier JournalThu, May 28, 2026 at 9:12 AM UTC
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MIRAMAR BEACH, FL — If Kentucky football coach Will Stein has it his way, the College Football Playoff will expand to 24 teams, not 16 as championed by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
"Anything more than 12 is going to be beneficial to our entire league," Stein told The Courier Journal at SEC spring meetings. "When you go to a nine-game conference schedule, you add a game, so that's eight more losses for the league. You have to add more games. So, it's going to happen. It's just a matter of, is it going to be 16 or 24?"
Stein knows it's not up to him. Or any of the other league's coaches. Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti need to kumbaya their way to a resolution. ESPN executives need to be in on it too. Athletics directors and university presidents matter as well. There are a lot of stakeholders involved in this conversation.
But, as Stein said, CFP expansion is imminent.
At their spring meetings earlier this month, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said they support a 24-team playoff. This would create 13 more games than the current 12-team model, generating more overall revenue and allowing for more access into college football's national championship event. However, Phillips said ESPN "has been pretty clear with all of us that they'd like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16" teams.
On3 reported earlier this week that a majority of the SEC's athletics directors (nine of the 14 that responded to On3's poll on the subject) prefer a playoff format beyond 16. One AD voted for a 20-team playoff, while eight others opted for 24.
Sankey wants 16 teams, while Petitti wants 24. Both commissioners, On3 reported, would rather continue with 12 than acquiesce to the other's preference. If they don't come to an agreement by Dec. 1, the 2027 playoff will stay at 12 teams. Sankey reaffirmed the league's 16-team predilection Wednesday, adding he expects a formal decision sometime this fall.
With expansion, though, comes the surefire elimination of conference championship games. ESPN reported that the SEC championship game generates an estimated $80-100 million in revenue for the league. Losing that kind of cash flow would be tough, especially with all the financial pressures schools face to remain competitive amid the NIL, revenue-sharing era of college athletics.
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Kentucky head coach Will Stein talks to the fans during the Kentucky Football spring game on April 18, 2026; Lexington, KY, USA; at Kroger Field.
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"Teams just aren't gonna be willing to play that (game)," Stein said, "and that weekend's gonna be now for playoffs, or Army-Navy, or however they want to decide how that fits. It's inevitable if you add more teams to the playoff, you're going to have to remove something, and it's probably going to most likely be conference championships."
Last year at SEC spring meetings, then-Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops told The Courier Journal he and UK had "a lot of work to do" to be relevant in CFP discussions. Stein, who coached in the last two playoffs with Oregon, is set on transforming UK into a contender. Regardless, the size and makeup of the CFP field will have a trickle-down effect on the Wildcats, as more SEC representation and more SEC wins means more SEC revenue distributions.
Last year, the SEC earned $37.4 million for CFP and bowl game participation. The league, according to Front Office Sports, distributes that money in a hybrid model, benefitting schools in the playoff more than the league's remaining membership.
First-round teams each get $3 million, and those who have to travel get an allowance to do so as "determined by the SEC Executive Committee." Quarterfinal teams get $3.5 million. Semifinal teams get $3.75 million. And a team participating in the national championship gets $4 million. Leftover money is added to the conference's pool and distributed equally among every SEC program and the league's office.
With months left to make an official decision, a lot of the conversations around the CFP at SEC spring meetings have been about what a CFP team should look like. What criteria matters most to the selection committee? Which statistics hold the most weight? What exactly does strength of schedule mean, i.e., do losses matter more than wins?
CFP executive director Rich Clark gave a presentation at the Hilton Sandestin Tuesday on the selection process and various metrics used throughout it. When asked whether that presentation offered satisfactory answers as far as what constitutes a playoff team, Sankey said "yes and no." Stein told The Courier Journal the presentation sparked "good back-and-forth and good discussion."
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com and follow her on X @petitus25. Subscribe to her "Full-court Press" newsletter here for a behind-the-scenes look at how college sports' biggest stories are impacting Louisville and Kentucky athletics.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: College Football Playoff size, why Kentucky coach Will Stein wants 24
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