Imagining what a 16-team College Football Playoff could look like in 2026

Indiana just completed the first 16-0 season since the 1894 Yale Bulldogs completed that feat. It took just two years of the 12-team College Football Playoff to see a team win 16 straight games, and in 2026, the CFP will remain at 12-teams. At some point, the playoff will expand, and a team could be the first to go 17-0. If the playoffs went to 16 teams in 2026, what could it possibly look like?

To imagine what a 16-team playoff would look like, it needs to start with the new rules for the playoffs in 2026. The model is changing from the top five-ranked conference champions to auto-bids for all four Power Four champions and the best champion from the Group of Six. This would have placed Duke in the playoffs in 2025, and now the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC champs will all be guaranteed to …