The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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12 THE WOLVERINE ❱ NOVEMBER 2026 ❱ INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS CFP SET TO DOUBLE TO 24-TEAM FIELD IN 2027 The College Football Playoff is headed to 24 teams in 2027 after a handshake deal was reached between the CFP and ESPN on Oct. 16 to broadcast an expanded field starting next season. The deal still needs board approval from every party, but the direction is clear. ESPN would pay about $345 million more per year over five years on top of the roughly $1.3 billion it currently pays annually, accord- ing to ESPN's Pete Thamel. The new revenue would replace Power Four conference championship games, which would have to disap- pear to accommodate the new calendar. The reported format gives byes to the top eight seeds, while seeds 9 through 24 will meet in first-round games on the higher seed's campus, per The Sporting News. Second-round games would likely be on campus, too, CFP executive director Rich Clark has said. The quarterfinals and semifinals stay at New Year's Six bowls, and the title game is set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans. The NCAA's FBS Oversight Committee recently approved changes to the college football calendar on Aug. 28, moving up the schedule by one week, which would end the regular season on Thanksgiving weekend with the elimination of conference title games. Had the 24-team format been in place since the inception of the CFP, Michigan would have made it eight times and earned a top- eight bye five times: 2016, 2018 and 2021-23. Its other appearances would have come in 2015, 2019 and 2025. WOULD U-M CONSIDER GOING INDEPENDENT? An intriguing possibility might come with how some pundits view big brands' standing in the new era of the expanded College Football Playoff. ESPN's Dan Wetzel suggests the door could be open in the new format to more programs possibly ditching conferences and turning inde- pendent. "Notre Dame now has the best situ- ation in all of football — almost 100 percent guarantee to make the playoff, freedom to schedule as it wishes, maxi- mization of its own media value," Wet- zel wrote on X on Oct. 16. "To use the Big Ten as an example, why wouldn't Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State follow? If you can, be independent. That's the future. The 18-team Big Ten is bloated, distant and winning it carries little intrinsic or competitive value for the biggest brands. " Those three schools can create a scheduling agreement that would in- crease their media revenue 2-3x and give the same control over everything. No sharing money. No forced TV times. Eight or even nine home games. Select your own schedule. "Staying in the Big Ten now makes little and perhaps no economic sense. And yes, I do understand the league- wide research grants and so on, but there is always a way around every- thing." The Big Ten's media contracts run through the end of the decade, and leaving would be walking away from shared revenue and confer- ence rivalries that go back more than a century. For now, a Michigan exit is a thought experiment. But in a sport that doubled its playoff field in three years, few ideas that sound far-fetched stay that way for long. U-M AWARDS JOYNER HIS CHAMPIONSHIP RING The Oct. 16 men's basketball exhibition victory over Oregon State featured an old friend returning to Crisler Center. Former U-M assistant Justin Joyner, who took the Beavers' head coaching job last spring, came back not only to lead his team but to be presented with his national championship ring after being part of Dusty May's staff over the past two seasons. Joyner and new U-M head coach Mike Boynton Jr. spent the past two seasons working under May at U-M, and the peers had an evening to reflect on their path after transitioning into new roles helming their respective programs. "Just super happy for Justin and him getting his first crack at run- ning a program," Boynton said after the game. "He's obviously done a tremendous job of assembling a really talented roster, which is not easy to do. But even more difficult is to get them to play the way they're playing this quickly with the intensity and focus and the desire to win that they play with. "Obviously, they've got a lot of transfers and are mixing guys together, but undoubtedly he'll be really successful there, and I'm looking forward to watching it." Joyner was an assistant at Saint Mary's from 2018-24 before his hiring to May's staff. — Anthony Broome MAIZE AND BLUE NOTEBOOK Michigan last visited the College Football Playoff stage when the Wolverines captured the 2024 CFP title by downing Washington 34-13 in Houston. PHOTO BY DOMINICK SOKOTOFF