It’s official for Penn State fans and any other fanbase in the country and everybody else: The College Football Playoff will be expanding to 24 teams starting next season.
Per multiple reports, the College Football Playoff has agreed to a five-year deal with ESPN worth almost $1.7 billion that will allow the bracket to expand from 12 teams to 24.
The CFP confirmed Nov. 6 that expansion to 24 teams was in the “final stages,” and ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that ESPN was getting ready to pay an extra $345 million per year for the larger bracket, along with the $1.3 billion its already paying.
Additionally, Power Four conference championship games will be eliminated, and Thamel reported that this would save ESPN roughly $140 million, bringing the total for the expanded bracket to $205 million. This means that Penn State’s final Big Ten conference championship game record will be 1-1.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.PSU beat Wisconsin in 2016 to win its first outright conference title since 1994. Eight years later, PSU returned to Indianapolis to face Oregon, where it fell. But because the 2016 game happened when the Playoff was at four teams and the 2024 game took place after it had expanded to 12, the 2024 PSU squad was the one that got to go to the Playoff. PSU ended up advancing to the semifinals, where it fell to Notre Dame.
If there were 24 teams in this year’s Playoff, Penn State would have a shot.
PSU is currently 5-4 and will be favored in each of its last three games (Minnesota and Rutgers at home, Maryland away). An 8-4 Big Ten team always has a shot at the top 25, which, starting next year, will basically be the requirement to make it to the College Football Playoff.
