Miami (FL) football coach Mario Cristobal is strongly against expanding CFP to 24 teams

The College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams in 2024, and it’s yielded some… interesting results. After years of the CFP just being a four-team tournament, the expanded format has led to more exciting games for fans. Because of that, there are talks about potentially increasing the number of teams playing to 24 teams. There are a lot of detractors of this movement, including Miami head coach Mario Cristobal.

In a recent interview, Cristobal expressed his thoughts on the potential expansion of the CFP to 24 teams. The Miami head coach said that he would prefer it if the college football season ended earlier to help them prepare for the following season. Cristobal also added that he didn’t like the idea of giving more teams automatic slots in the playoffs.

“So yeah, just move everything up, that’s all,” Cristobal said, per CFB Kings. “I have one bye week, and let’s roll. I’m not for the 24 thing. I think that’s just a lot. Like, why play a regular season then, you know? And I’m certainly not for automatic, like, hey, this conference, guys are, like, why? … It’s not a beauty pageant, okay? It’s not a beauty contest. It’s competition, go win. Go win on the field.”

Cristobal’s Miami team made it to the 2025 iteration of the College Football Playoff. The Hurricanes were selected as the representative for the ACC. While they were the 10th seed in the playoff, Miami went all the way to the Finals of the tournament. They beat Texas A&M in the first round, then knocked out Ohio State and Ole Miss in the succeeding games to face Indiana.

The Hurricanes put up a good fight against the Hoosiers, being the first team in the playoffs to challenge the undefeated Indiana team in a close game. However, it still wasn’t enough, as Miami lost 27-21 against Indiana. Miami lost a couple of names to the NFL Draft, including right tackle Francis Mauigoa and quarterback Carson Beck.

The 2026 season will be another season where the CFP playoffs will be expanded to 12 teams. What happens in 2027, though, is yet to be decided. There are campaigns from different conferences to expand the format to 16 or even 24 teams.

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