{
  "id": 18154965,
  "title": "Here's why a 24-team playoff will ruin great football weekends like this one",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/heres-why-a-24-team-playoff-will-ruin-great-football-weekends-like",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-04T17:31:38.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/heres-why-a-24-team-playoff-will-ruin-great-football-weekends-like-this-one-173229308.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The most disappointing aspect of the upcoming 24-team college football playoff isn’t that it will result in fewer high-quality, significant games. College football will always feature important matchups that everyone wants to watch, like the one coming up soon. However, under the 24-team playoff, all those critical games will shift from September, October, and early November into late December. To illustrate this change, let’s examine this weekend’s games using the current 4-team playoff rankings as our guide: Miami (1) at Notre Dame (11). With a 4-team playoff, Miami would be fighting for its playoff spot, while Notre Dame would simply be a spoiler. In a 12-team playoff, Miami would automatically make the playoffs, and Notre Dame would have to win out just to stay in contention. With a 24-team playoff, Miami would likely secure a bye, and Notre Dame would remain in the playoff field, regardless of its performance. This pattern continues with other matchups. Against Georgia (2) at Ole Miss (10), a loss for Georgia would severely impact its chances, while Ole Miss would struggle to stay alive without help. Similarly, in the matchup between BYU (9) at Utah (3), a loss for Utah would put its playoff hopes in jeopardy, while BYU might be able to climb into contention with a win. The 24-team playoff would transform this into a “Battle for a Bye,” lacking the excitement of a crucial game. The same holds true for Alabama (5) at LSU (14) and Kentucky (6) at Tennessee (13). In these games, the stakes would be significantly diminished under the 24-team playoff format. The 12-team playoff format is seen as the ideal solution, as it maintains meaningful regular-season games and creates a more compelling postseason bracket. Of the nine games involving Top-15 teams this weekend, a 12-team playoff would ensure that all nine games still carry significant weight, whereas only three would matter in a 24-team playoff. In a 12-team playoff, fans would be anxious to see if Ohio State, Ole Miss, and LSU could secure playoff spots. In a 24-team playoff, the focus would shift to whether three-loss teams like Oregon, Minnesota, and West Virginia would even make the playoffs. This raises the question: when the 24-team playoff arrives, will we witness top teams vying for playoff seeding or three-loss teams fighting for a participation trophy? It’s unlikely to be the thrilling competition fans have come to expect.",
  "summary": "A game-by-game analysis shows that a 24-team playoff would turn a weekend like this into a battle for participation trophies.",
  "key_points": [
    "24-team playoff shifts critical games to late December",
    "Miami and Notre Dame would both make playoffs in 12-team format",
    "12-team playoff maintains meaningful regular-season games"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}