Robert Griffin III Explains Why College Football Playoff Needs To Expand To 24 Teams

On the heels of news that a 24-team College Football Playoff is, indeed, coming to the sport, football fans everywhere have started speaking out against it. But one surprising voice has come to the plan's defense: Robert Griffin III.

Taking to X last night, RGIII called it "the right move" and explained that the expansion will increase revenue in a way that will allow more than just a few schools to survive the "current landscape" of the sport.

"The College Football Playoff expanding to 24 teams IS THE RIGHT MOVE for College Football to survive in the current landscape," Griffin began. "Stay with me. Expansion will increase revenue for all the conferences and teams who want to find a way to offset the increased spending they have taken on with student athletes now getting a piece of the pie through revenue sharing/NIL. An expansion to 24 teams will also allow more networks to get a piece of the College Football Playoff games, which is a great thing for the fans. With the Big 10 winning the last 3 National Championships, networks like Fox Sports, NBC and CBS would certainly provide enhanced coverage of the teams they routinely cover in-depth all year long. As roster spending continues to rise towards $50 million a year in football and $25 million in basketball, combined with facility arms races and increased travel cost due to conference realignments, College Football playoff expansion is the right call for the survival of sport. No more Conference Championships games is the cost."

Backlash

As you can probably guess, this take hasn't been received well. Fans everywhere are poking holes in Griffin's reasoning here.

"Nope, lost me. 24 is too much and is only good for the people who are pocketing the money. The 24th team in the country is not winning the national title. It's a participation trophy at that point. 12 teams as of now is still too much. It should be 8 teams," one user replied.

"Hear me out though. College fans are over some of this. NIL signing needs to be implemented with contracts like pro sports. That's the way the pros work. Smaller conferences that are geographically based is what people really want. Some of the bowl games are absolutely amazing," wrote another.

"Nothing in this post addresses any concerns that FANS have about expanding the playoffs to 24 teams," a third declared.

"None of what you listed actually helps college football. Everything you said helps the greedy suits make more money."

To his credit, Griffin is defending his stance at almost every turn, issuing dozens of replies on X in response to the criticism he's getting. But the fact of the matter is that the fans simply do not want a 24-team playoff and will not respect anyone who tries to push for it.

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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 11:40 AM.