Mike Elko pushes back on expanded playoff talk

The College Football Playoff will remain at 12 teams for the 2026-27 season. However, expansion seems to be inevitable, as speculation grows that it could expand to 16 or even 24 teams down the road. On Friday, Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko pushed back against the CFP expansion.

Elko, who is 48 years old, claimed that he doesn’t think college football should be like college basketball and have a huge tournament at the end of the regular season, according to Chris Low of On3 Sports. He suggests the expansion could hurt the importance of late-season games, and Elko doesn’t want that to be the case.

“The importance of the regular season is still very much in line with what I believe it has always been,” said Elko. “Could that still be the case with a larger number? Potentially. But I think we need to create some data points to figure out where that balance is. We don’t need to be NCAA basketball. The beauty of our sport is that there are games at the end of the season that matter that people lose.”

Mike Elko does make a point about games losing their value near the end of the regular season. The rules in place for the College Football Playoff have already diminished the importance of programs winning their Conference Championship games. For example, the Duke Blue Devils were jumped by the Miami Hurricanes for a CFP bid despite Duke winning the ACC Conference title, a game Miami didn’t even participate in.

Granted, the Hurricanes went on to play in the National Championship Game against the Indiana Hoosiers. So, one could argue that it was the right choice to leave Duke out of the CFP altogether. Either way, the NCAA is still very much in the “figuring it out” phase when it comes to expanding the CFP.