"CFP is about to expand again": Josh Pate drops major predictions about college football playoff expansion

The 2024 season marked the first year of the new 12-team college football playoff expansion. After several high-octane games, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish emerged as the finalists for the national championship. Ryan Day and his team took home the crown, winning the program's first national title since 2014.

On Monday's episode of his eponymous show, CFB analyst Josh Pate discussed the implications of an expanded playoff. He spoke about the possibility of another playoff expansion.

"The CFP is about to expand again," Pate captioned a clip of the episode on X (formerly Twitter). "The SEC & Big Ten will probably get 4 guaranteed spots apiece & use it to completely reimagine their conference title races."

In the show, Pate also discussed how this expansion could shift the focus of teams to their respective conference games, knowing that a certain number of spots in the playoffs are guaranteed.

"Instead of having the committee rank the teams one-through-25, and then you got your automatic qualifiers, ... just forget all about that, just wipe the slate clean. And what will happen is that the SEC will have four guaranteed spots, the Big Ten will have four guaranteed spots and so on and so forth. That's it."

"I was never for playoff expansion. But we got it. So I had to bite the bullet on it. But given that we're here, I'll tell you, I'll end up liking this format more. Because what it does is it redirects the focus back onto the conference championship races."

According to Pate, the goal is to emphasize the importance of winning conferences. He suggested that two of the guaranteed playoff spots should go to the top two teams in the final conference standings at the end of the season.

So far, the 12-team playoff expansion has been successful, aside from a few issues with seeding and automatic byes.

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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey wants another college football playoff expansion

During the 2024 season, three SEC teams qualified to participate in the 12-team playoffs: Georgia, Tennessee, and the newcomers, the Texas Longhorns. Unfortunately, none of them made it to the finals.

Last month, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was interviewed by The Athletic, where he hinted at his desire for another CFP expansion.

"I've not had a lot of conversations yet about people's interest in adapting," Sankey said. "I would hope there is interest. But then in '26 we've got another opportunity."

Greg Sankey also discussed how things have changed with the expansion of the SEC and Big Ten. He believes the CFP should adapt to these changes.

"Remember when the format was introduced we had what was called the Power 5 and the Group of 5? There is not a Power 5. We had a look at history, you never meant pulling seeds from outside the top 10 really into the top four in this format. And that's now happened," he said.

"Those are learning experiences, and that informs adaptation. And we've got a responsibility to have what I would consider is a competitive and fair fomat."

The first year of the 12-team CFP format turned out to be beneficial for the Big Ten. It will be interesting to see if the SEC can redeem itself and find a way to emerge as national champions this upcoming season.