The Ohio State football program has proven to thrive when it comes to college football expansion. The Buckeyes have won two national championships when the national championship picture has changed. They won the first four and 12-team College Football Playoff.
So if expansion were to happen, one would think that the Ohio State Buckeyes would be happy about it. Yet, 12 teams seem to be the perfect amount. It allows each conference to get the proper teams in, and it allows the Group of 4 to still be represented. That seems to be the right move.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti doesn't see it that way. He is advocating for the Playoff to expand to 24 teams. It seems that he is the only one who is asking for that to happen. In fact, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has the right thoughts when it comes to expansion.
The Ohio State football team would prefer not to do expansion
Ohio State doesn't want expansion, even if Pettiti claims that the entire conference is on board. Ryan Day is on record as saying that he thinks expansion might benefit the Big Ten, but it might not benefit Ohio State. That is the correct sentiment to have. Quite frankly, expansion is a bad idea.
Sankey agrees, and he essentially threw the Big Ten under the bus for asking to expand the playoff to 24 teams in the first place. Sankey even mentioned that Petitti brought up expansion to 16 games in the first place.
Greg Sankey is asked to respond to Tony Petitti’s comments last week that the Big Ten hasn’t discussed a 16-team field: “I was surprised by that since they brought 16 to the table. All those 16 ideas (last year) weren’t ours.”
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 25, 2026
The SEC wants the CFP to stay at 12. Sankey also made it clear that he does not want any automatic qualifiers given. He believes that everything is fine the way that it is. From an objective perspective, he is correct. There is no reason for the CFP to add more teams. All that does is dilute the competition.
The Ohio State football team shouldn't want CFP expansion
Ryan Day has mentioned that expansion might be good for the conference, but it might not be good for the Buckeyes. He is correct in that sentiment. Ohio State should never miss the Playoff the way that it is currently set up. If they do, that would mean that the Buckeyes have lost three games in a single season.
If Ohio State ever lost three games in a season, Day would be searching for a new job. It sounds like he agrees with that notion, and he doesn't want to water down the competition. He wants the best of the best represented at the end of the season, and he's right to think that.
Any expansion of the CFP would water down the regular season even more than it has already. The 12-team CFP devalues the regular season. Doubling the field would devalue it even more, meaning that ratings would be down for most of the games that are played.
Petitti needs to change his tune when it comes to CFP expansion. He's only looking out for himself when he should be looking out for college football at large.
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