While the College Football Playoff will stay put at 12 teams for the 2026 season, an eventual expansion of the field still appears inevitable.<\/p>\n
And while defending his stance that the CFP should add more teams, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork put it bluntly, pointing to the economic opportunity such expansion would provide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a believer in expansion. I think it\u2019s good for the game of football,\u201d Bjork told Eleven Warriors<\/a> in a wide-ranging interview. \u201cWe just spent the first 15 minutes talking about governance and calendars and portals and NIL and things like that. You know, what\u2019s really fascinating is the games have never been more popular. Look at TV viewership. Even college basketball viewership is up this year.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the fact that we have content that is valuable \u2014 live sporting content in today\u2019s environment where everything\u2019s sort of on demand has never been more valuable. And so producing more content produces more revenue, which we can give back to the players. I\u2019m all for that side of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the competitive part of the conversation, Bjork noted that it would actually behoove a perennial power like the Buckeyes to play in a smaller field. The Ohio State AD, however, believes that what\u2019s best for the overall health of college football is\u00a0to expand the playoff field, with the Big Ten\u00a0reportedly advocating doubling it<\/a>\u00a0to 24 teams<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the greater whole of the enterprise of college sports and the commercial activity, the content, the TV negotiations, the access to \u2014 I think it keeps the regular season more alive,\u201d he said. \u201cIf more teams are in the mix, these games are going to mean so much more than they already do, which again drives the value. So, look, I can live with 16 [teams]. I can live with 20, 24, whatever the number is. But I just think that it\u2019s too valuable right now in the current climate to overlook not expanding. I think we need to expand sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n How noble.<\/p>\n