“I Don’t Like It!” - Rich React to the College Football Playoff Expanding to 24 Teams in 2027

The breaking news came from college football, and the first reaction in the room took about two seconds.

"I don't like it."

Pete Thamel is reporting that sources tell him the College Football Playoff is nearing a deal to expand to 24 teams, with the new format starting in 2027. The deal is expected to come together in the near future pending final approvals, along with ESPN purchasing additional games for a run matching the length of ESPN's current deal.

Rich acknowledged the obvious: it is probably great for the show's parent company. As a fan, though, the answer on air was simple. "Not into it."

The problem is what 24 looks like in practice. Pull up the current top 25 and you are basically looking at the playoff field. Rich has already been warning that this year will produce three-loss teams that miss the playoff while a one-loss team leaves everyone wondering who exactly it played. Expand to 24 and that one-loss team gets in, and if it gets curb stomped in the first round, well.

Rich didn't stop at no, though. He laid out what it would take to get him on board, and it is a long list.

First, the conference championship games have to go. "Those are the first things to go," he said. Then the sport has to figure out how to schedule uniformly.

Then comes the part Rich clearly cares about most: the rules of engagement for recruiting players, keeping players, and keeping coaches. He wants a system where a coach can't simply "get bought off by some rich guy who's got a chicken farm somewhere" and vanish overnight. Coaches, in his view, should face the same rules for sticking around that players do. And every conference's rules have to match.

"And if other schools don't like it, then they're out," Rich said.

That is the trade he would accept. If the expanded playoff becomes, in effect, the governing body of the sport, uniform on scheduling, on NIL, on the transfer portal, and on making coaches stay put, then the bigger bracket has a purpose.

"Then now I'm interested," Rich said. "But outside of that, what does this do?"

For now, it's more games and the same chaos. Rich's verdict stands: he doesn't like it.