Steve Sarkisian took aim at several of college football’s most contentious issues in an interview with USA Today — including NIL, unrestricted player movement, NCAA enforcement failures, and the sport’s constant push for more revenue. But even amid an ever-changing landscape, the Texas coach’s biggest concern remains the College Football Playoff. With leaders weighing expanding the field to as many as 24 teams, Sarkisian said the current selection process already asks too much of committee members.
“The committee doesn’t have the bandwidth to watch that many games,” Sarkisian said. “They see the media and coaches’ polls, and they copy them. You’ve got a 12-team playoff, and that means there are at least 30 teams that impact it. Now, all of a sudden, you want to go to 24? Now the polls become an even greater factor, because now you’re asking (the committee) to watch 40 teams a week — if not 50.”
The CFP expanded from four teams to 12 beginning with the 2024 season and is set to remain in that format through the upcoming 2026 campaign. But another round of growth appears firmly in play. Yahoo Sports reported last week that the American Football Coaches Association voted to recommend “maximum” expansion, potentially to 24 teams, while also backing the elimination of conference championship games and broader changes to the postseason calendar.
Sarkisian said those discussions skip over a more immediate issue: whether the current process is functioning well enough to justify expanding it.
The 13-member panel includes athletic directors, former coaches, and former players. It evaluates teams using criteria such as wins and losses, strength of schedule, conference championships and head-to-head results, while members also have access to game broadcasts and film.
Even so, Sarkisian said the system lacks clarity.
“Everyone talks about NIL, but my biggest gripe is the selection committee,” Sarkisian said. “There’s no transparency on what exactly the committee is doing. We have to figure that out.”
SEC schedule shift adds pressure to playoff debate
Sarkisian’s concerns come as structural changes across the sport threaten to complicate playoff evaluation further. The SEC moved to a nine-game conference schedule beginning this season, joining other power conferences, increasing the number of high-level matchups. The shift is expected to raise strength-of-schedule variability and increase the likelihood of additional losses for contenders in an already crowded race for playoff spots.
Texas was among the first teams left out of the 12-team field last year with a 9-3 regular-season record but multiple wins over ranked opponents. Miami, meanwhile, secured the final at-large bid despite a less consistent résumé before validating its selection with a postseason run featuring wins over Texas A&M and Ole Miss in the CFP. The Hurricanes also defeated Florida (which beat Texas) in the regular season and finished with one top-10 win, coming at home against Notre Dame.
Still, Sarkisian argued the disparity highlights ongoing questions about how the committee weighs differing schedules.
“What would their record have been if they played our schedule?” Sarkisian told USA Today. “What would our record have been if we played theirs? But there’s scheduling inequity.”
Power conferences divided on future playoff format
The Big Ten has supported a 24-team model with multiple automatic qualifiers. At the same time, the SEC previously favored a 16-team format with five automatic bids for the highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large berths.
Supporters of expansion argue that a larger field would create greater fan interest deeper into the season and add additional value for television partners. Critics counter that it could diminish the regular season and place more strain on a calendar already crowded by transfer portal movement, coaching turnover and January competition with the NFL playoffs.
Sarkisian believes simply adding teams would not solve those larger problems.
“I’d go back to a four-team playoff, and have your own conference playoff to get the four teams if you want more inventory for your television partners,” Sarkisian told USA Today Sports. “We have to think outside the box. Just adding teams and going to 24, that’s a very spastic view, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. Forever in college athletics, we don’t think about the unintended consequences of decisions we make. It’s all knee-jerk reactions. Look where it has gotten us.”
For now, the CFP remains at 12 teams. But as momentum builds for a larger bracket, Sarkisian’s criticism cuts to the heart of the debate: if college football cannot clearly defend how it selects the current field, expansion may only deepen the controversy over who gets a chance to play for the national championship.
