MORGANTOWN — It seems like every month, there’s a new proposed College Football Playoff format. May 2026 is no different.
The American Football Coaches Association supported the adoption of a 24-team playoff field, which would, in turn, eliminate conference championship games, according to an article published by Yahoo Sports. For those wondering, the coaches in the association included Illinois’ Bret Bielema, Oklahoma’s Brent Venables, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, SMU’s Rhett Lashlee, Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Michigan State’s new head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
The College Football Playoff rankings would decide the field of 24, and then an automatic bid for the Group of Six leagues. The format adds another playoff round, and the top eight teams receive a bye, while the rest of the teams play a first-round game on campus. This would remove conference title games, and the playoffs would start right after the regular season. The Army-Navy game would still have its signature time slot, but other games will be played on the same day. This would have the national title game be played on the second Monday in January instead of the third.
This is just a proposal, and the AFCA has no authority to pass something like this. The Big Ten and SEC are in control of deciding whether or not to make this move. They have shown support for expanding the field. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yorkmark showed support for the 24-team field, too.
This format is mostly to include more teams in the ever-growing “Big Dance” of the college football postseason, like West Virginia, and to ultimately make more money by selling broadcasting rights. In this format, going off last year’s 2025 College Football Playoff rankings, No. 24 James Madion, who was 12-1, would make the field. 8-4 Iowa, 9-3 Georgia Tech and 9-3 Houston all make the cut, too.
This should be more appealing to the Mountaineers. After a 4-8 season in Year 1 under Rich Rodriguez, it might seem far off, especially since one of the wins came against Robert Morris, but the goalposts are widening for each team in college football. In this new format, the Big 12 Championship would be gone to allow for the playoffs to be pushed up, so now the goal by the end of the season is to work your way into the top 25, earning a spot in the playoffs.
It’s been a while since a new playoff structure was presented to Rodriguez, but he’s made it clear he doesn’t care if it’s four teams, eight teams, 12 teams or 24 teams.
“I don’t give a sh*t,” Rodriguez said back in July. “I ain’t worried about, well, this team’s going to vote here. What they’re going to vote there? If you’re good enough, people know you’re in the top 12, whatever. We win all of our games, I guarantee you we’re in the playoffs, guaranteed.”
You don’t need to win all your games. Now, it’s probably eight games finds you on the bubble, and nine should put you in, depending on the caliber of opponents.
But adding more games creates more wear and tear on the athletes. Teams already play a 12-game regular season, and then if you’re ranked 9-24, and somehow manage to make it to the National Championship, you could be playing an NFL regular season as a 17 to 24-year-old.
WVU athletic director Wren Baker was in favor of adding more teams back before the 2025 season started, when the 5-plus-11 model was talked about, but cautioned that adding more games would be taxing on the student athletes.
“I’m always for additional opportunities,” Baker said in August. “Provided that it does not diminish the student athlete experience. I think in football, when you talk about a sport that’s particularly physical, grueling and long in terms of the season, you have to be really careful and intentional about how you do those. I’m open to any discussion that makes sense, that provides opportunities and doesn’t significantly impact the health and safety of student athletes.”
Despite the talks this offseason of expanding the playoffs, the 2026 season will still have the 12-team playoff with the traditional format. This new 24-team format has to be agreed upon by the Big Ten and SEC to become a reality.
So, the Mountaineers still have to win the Big 12 or be in the top 10 to make the College Football Playoff this year, but in the future, WVU might just have to crack the top 25, which it’s shown numerous times over the years it can.
