ORLANDO, Fla. — The College Football Playoff's move toward a 24-team bracket has the rest of the postseason bracing for fallout, with bowl leaders warning that a sizable share of the games outside the playoff may not survive.
Roughly 35 bowls currently sit outside the playoff structure, and none of them hold conference tie-ins beyond the 2026 season. Doubling the field shifts about 12 more teams from the bowl pool into the bracket, leaving fewer winning programs to fill the remaining matchups.
Orlando shows the problem. The Citrus and Pop-Tarts bowls, both run by Florida Citrus Sports, pick the best Big Ten, SEC and ACC teams left out of the playoff. All five teams that played in those two games last season would have made a 24-team field, and a contracted Big Ten-SEC Citrus Bowl could be left with teams carrying 8-4 or 7-5 records. The group's chief executive expects many bowls to be cut.
Under the plan taking shape with the playoff's television partner, the expanded format would start next season and run through the 2031 postseason. The top eight seeds get byes, the first two rounds are played on campus in December, some on weeknights, and the six New Year's rotation bowls keep the quarterfinals and semifinals.
One idea still under discussion would package 10 bowls pairing 20 power conference teams that miss the bracket, five from each league, and sell them as a group. The same network owns 17 of the roughly 20 bowls outside the power leagues, so much of their future rests with it.
Bowls still draw viewers. The 10 most-watched non-playoff games last season averaged 5.8 million, and the full slate averaged more than 3 million. But opt-outs were already sapping interest in a 12-team era, and motivation for power programs that fall short of a 24-team field is an open question.
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