Big Ten’s CFP expansion idea is ‘absurd,’ ESPN host says

Rece Davis doesn’t want to see the College Football Playoff expand to two dozen or more participants.

The longtime host of ESPN’s “College GameDay” said on Saturday, per On3’s Nick Schultz, that the Big Ten Conference’s idea being floated around that could grow the CFP to 24 or 28 teams is “absurd.”

Davis made his comments on ESPN just before No. 17 Kansas State and No. 22 Iowa State were set to battle in the opener of the 2025 college football season from Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

According to a recent report by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Big Ten’s idea is in the early stages of being discussed. This proposal would eliminate conference title games and offer a sizable number of automatic bids to the four power conferences.

“I’m just going to say this flat-out: I don’t believe they’re serious about this,” Davis said on “College Football Countdown,” per Schultz. “I believe this is like when you go to sell your house, and you say, ‘I’m going to ask $1 million more than I’m willing to settle for.’ They’re trying to get something back on the other side because on its face, this is absurd. It’s absurd, on its face. So they have to be looking for something else. That’s my guess.”

CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello reported on Aug. 18, citing sources, that the Big Ten’s CFP expansion idea isn’t off to a great start and has caught stakeholders off guard.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti recently floated the two expansion models to athletic directors in that conference, per Marcello. The Southeastern Conference, the other dominant league in college football, was later informed.

Others conferences weren’t told about the idea until reports leaked out, according to Marcello. A CFP executive said to CBS Sports, “We sound like immature children throwing garbage against the wall.”

Per Thamel, in the 28-team model, the Big Ten and the SEC would each command seven automatic bids, while the ACC and the Big 12 would both get five. There would then be two auto bids for non-power-four conferences and also two at-large teams.

At the conclusion of the 2025 season, there will be a 12-team CFP. The event also had 12 participants last season, with Ohio State winning, and before that, four teams.

Over the past year or so, stakeholders have discussed potentially expanding the CFP to 16 participants. However, an agreement hasn’t been reached due to different conferences wanting a different number of automatic bids versus at-large teams, according to Thamel.