ESPN football commentator Kevin Clark is directly calling out college football leadership as the sport moves toward yet another expansion of the College Football Playoff.
During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, Clark made an impassioned plea against the 24-team Playoff, arguing that such a move would “ruin” the regular season and put the sport on a path toward disaster.
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“I think that college football should be run by people who like college football,” Clark said. “And every decision, every idea I’ve seen about playoff expansion seems like it’s come from people who don’t like college football, don’t know why we like it, and it’s really starting to tick me off. A 24-team playoff would be a disgrace.”
The Big Ten appears to be pushing for a 24-team bracket, while the SEC seems to prefer a 16-team bracket.
Clark believes anything that devalues regular-season games is a bad idea, and one that is only gaining momentum because athletic directors are trying to “bail themselves out” from their own mistakes by sucking up more television money.
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“Frankly, I think 12 is too big. I thought six was the perfect playoff size if you wanted to stop there, but we know that they can’t help themselves,” he said.
“I get that. So 12, and if you have to, in a decade, go to 16. Fine. But the idea of 24, the idea I’ve seen floated of 32, I just think it’s ludicrous. It devalues the regular season, and at some point, if you start making decisions that are not for the best interest of the sport and for the interest of, either TV networks or ADs that want to bail themselves out from bad decisions that they themselves have made … then college football fans are in for a really, really rough decade.”
The CFP is expected to remain at 12 teams for the 2026-27 season.
Clark, who has filled in as a host on Finebaum and grown his voice in college football since joining ESPN in 2024, argued that college football has “the best regular season in sports” and that conference and CFP execs should be protecting it.
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“If we start coalescing around the fact that college football has the best regular season in sports, that we, the fans, are the reason that 30 million people watch certain college football games, and it’s not about decisions made in the boardroom, I think … there’s so much that can go on here in the next couple years,” he said.
“I think the No. 1 thing is making sure that we don’t lose sight of why people like college football, and not lose sight of the fact that Oct. 15 and 22 and 29, those can be the best days on the sports calendar. It’s not about the Playoff. It will never be about the Playoff. I don’t think the Playoff will ever be the focal point of the sport in the same way March Madness is. But if you try to make it that, then you ruin the regular season and you ruin the sport.”
Sometimes the most effective arguments are the most basic ones. College football is arguably as popular as it has ever been following massive conference realignment and the loosening of restrictions around player movement and compensation.
But as Clark warns, college football’s relevance could wane once again if its leadership makes the wrong decisions.
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