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All that matters is whether the SEC and Big Ten agree. Momentum around a potential 24-team College Football Playoff has accelerated in recent weeks, with the ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame now joining the Big Ten in support of an expanded format. But during a recent episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt explained why what feels inevitable to many around the sport may still be far from finalized. For all the public momentum behind expansion, Klatt explained that the future of the CFP still hinges on the two conferences with the most power — the SEC and Big Ten — and whether the former is beginning to soften its resistance to a larger field. Here’s everything to know about where the current 24-team CFP model sits: The ACC, Big 12, Notre Dame and the AFCA were all against a 24-team College Football Playoff. Then, over the last 10 days, everyone changed course except the SEC. Why? Klatt: First and foremost, it’s important to understand why the ACC and Big 12 opposed previous expansion models, particularly the one initially put forth by the Big Ten. Those formats relied heavily on automatic qualifying spots, in some cases granting four bids each to the SEC and Big Ten while offering fewer guaranteed spots to the ACC and Big 12. The ACC and Big 12 were never going to support a model that effectively asked them to acknowledge they were lesser conferences. Their objection was never really about expansion itself. It was about unequal access. What those conferences opposed was a system that locked in preferential treatment for the SEC and Big Ten through automatic qualifiers. So when the Big Ten came to the table with a new model — one that eliminated automatic bids in favor of a selection-based format featuring the 23 best teams and one Group of 6 representative — it immediately piqued the interest of the other conferences and was more in line with what they were looking for. Most fans are against College Football Playoff expansion. Why? Klatt: There is a real element of frustration amongst fans when it comes to this proposed 24-team model, and here are some of the main reasons why: The 12-team model absolutely worked, there’s no doubt about it. And while it might seem to some that the 24-team playoff seems inevitable at this point, that’s actually not the case because in reality, it doesn’t really matter what the Big 12, ACC or Notre Dame back. It only matters what the SEC and the Big Ten agree upon. Those two entities actually control the future of the CFP. The others gave them the right to have that power, and they will control this playoff remaining as it is or expanding to 14, 16 or 24. If the SEC and Big Ten had agreed on an automatic-qualifier expanded playoff, it would have happened by now, against the wishes of the other conferences. But they weren’t aligned, and they still aren’t aligned. So, because of that, we are sitting in a very similar spot as we were before where this is not inevitable. If the Big Ten and SEC do not agree on a model, which they don’t right now, then nothing is going to change. There is an argument being made that college football has the most important regular season in all of sports, and I don’t disagree with that. That sentiment is not wrong. We see this with the NCAA Basketball Tournament, which is now expanding beyond 70 teams, so what would stop college football from expanding beyond 24? If there’s more revenue at 24, isn’t there more revenue at 32? I get this argument, and I don’t think it’s wrong. I think the only answer to that is — format. A lot of the regular season and the importance of the regular season would be determined based on the format. How many byes are there? How many home games are there? If you can get a bye or a home game, you’re going to play hard. This one is highly debatable. As a former college football player, I will tell you first hand that college football players have a very limited window to go and play, in particular if they want to further their career after college football. So, those games matter. It’s not like the NFL where a guy has a long-term contract, and he’s resting for a couple of weeks, and he knows he’s gonna play for a few more years. College football is unique in its small window for the participants to go and compete. What impact have NIL and the transfer portal had on College Football Playoff expansion? Klatt: If it weren’t for NIL and freedom of movement, the 12-team model probably wouldn’t have been the success it is now. In the four-team era, we would have looked at a 12-team model and thought, “Who cares? The 13th-ranked team would never win a championship.” But with NIL, the transfer portal and the agency players now have to move around, roster parity has increased. Now, there are more than 12 teams capable of competing for and winning a national championship. What role do bowl games have in College Football Playoff expansion? Klatt: Bowls don’t mean anything anymore. It pains me to say that because I loved bowl season. Now, all the upper-to-middle class bowls in college football — it doesn’t matter. All these bowls that were fantastic — the Alamo, Gator and Citrus Bowl — all these bowls that could define a program as successful, that’s no longer available. The collapse of the bowl apparatus is real. Who is driving College Football Playoff expansion? Klatt: Coaches and athletic directors are driving this. The SEC and Big Ten are going to drive this. It’s not just Tony Petitti (Big Ten commissioner) and Greg Sankey (SEC commissioner). It’s the people who they work for. It’s the presidents of those institutions that are ultimately going to have the final say. Coaches and athletic directors are now trying to convince their presidents that they need this expansion because what they fear is that the middle class is going to stop investing. And once they stop investing, then we lose the parity in college football, which we all love. The coaches’ viewpoint is this: They want a wider definition of success, and with that comes a desire to shorten the season. They want conference championship games to go away, and that is a major piece of this conversation. In fact, that’s one of the primary reasons the proposed model expanded beyond 16 teams to 24. Why is a 24-team model being proposed, and not a 16-team model? Klatt: If you get rid of conference championship games — which you would have to do in order to finish the season around Jan. 1 — you then have to recoup the revenue those games generate. So in order to expand the playoff and eliminate conference championship games, you’d need to increase the value of the CFP. You can’t really do that with a 16-team model because it only adds a handful of games, and those games likely wouldn’t command enough value to offset the loss of the conference championship revenue. I don’t think the conferences are looking to break the bank with an expanded playoff. This isn’t about generating another billion dollars. They’re trying to recover the money they’d lose by eliminating conference championship games. I think a lot of these conference commissioners would sign off on a 24-team CFP even if they only broke even financially, because it would broaden the definition of success across the middle tier of their conferences. In their minds, that would create more meaningful regular-season games, particularly late in the year.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
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The Alaska State Capitol is seen on the last day of the legislative session on May 20, 2026. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
The Alaska Legislature approved a broad omnibus crime bill that will increase criminal penalties for a variety of offenses and streamline victims services. The bill includes over a dozen pieces of legislation and garnered bipartisan support.
The Alaska Senate unanimously passed House Bill 239 on Tuesday, after assembling the combination bill package over the last several weeks. Lawmakers in the House concurred with the Senate’s changes by a vote of 39 to 1 on Wednesday morning. It now advances to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.
The omnibus crime bill includes provisions to create stricter criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material, hit-and-run incidents and sexual assault by a healthcare worker. It also raises the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old and restructures the Alaska Board of Parole, among other items.
Sen. James Kauffman, R-Anchorage, spoke in support of the omnibus bill on Tuesday. “We hear of sausage-making in the legislative process — this is a big piece of sausage,” he said. “And having seen it in Senate Finance, I was impressed with the content, the quality of how so many things came together, and it came together so well.”
Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, carried the omnibus bill in the Senate. He noted that the state will carry some fixed and indeterminate costs for enacting the changes across several state departments, but said it’s worth the price tag to protect public safety and improve protections for victims.
“Changing the statutes is not enough. Sometimes it calls on us to have more prosecutors, more police and more people in the field to actually enforce these crimes,” he said on the Senate floor.
“I hear consistently from the public, when we look at these public safety measures, is ‘Who’s going to be there to enforce these laws?’ This is an example in which the fiscal notes reflect that this bill will cost money, but the public really believes in it, and they want these measures to take place, and they want our public safety professionals to go and do the things they need to enforce these laws,” he said.
Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, sponsored the bill to enact state criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material, and spoke in support ahead of the vote. She spoke in favor of concurrence on Wednesday morning.
“There’s a couple of windows that I would like tighter, however we have to get agreement with every region of the state. And I think this bill does that. This bill prioritizes justice. And this is justice for all of those who have not had a voice,” she said.
Some members of the House all-Republican minority caucus raised concerns at the number of bills included in the omnibus bill and the need for more public discussion and hearing on the individual bills. But Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, argued that hearing each bill would take legislators hundreds of hours and an omnibus bill was the best way to pass and enact needed criminal policy changes.
Rep Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, backed a bill to raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old, aimed at prosecuting sexual violence against 16 and 17 year olds. “For years we were collaborating on this, whether we knew we were collaborating or not,” he said on Wednesday on the omnibus crime bill.
“We have the highest rate of sexual assault in the country, and the majority of victims being young. Being younger is a risk factor,” he said. “What we are doing today is telling predators that 16 and 17 year olds are off limits.”
The omnibus crime bill now includes:
- House Bill 239 — would increase criminal penalties for hit and run incidents by drivers that cause a death and knowingly fail to stop and render assistance, and it establishes mandatory sentencing of four to seven years for a first hit and run felony conviction.
- House Bill 101 — would raise the age of consent from 16 to 18 years old, with provisions to allow minors to consent to sex with someone up to six years older than them. The draft bill also allows 16 and 17 year olds to consensually exchange sexual or explicit messages within the six year close-in-age gap without penalties.
- Senate Bill 247 — would create state criminal penalties for creating AI-generated child sexual abuse images or videos that depict sexually explicit or obscene content involving anyone under 18 years old.
- House Bill 62 — would establish a statewide tracking system for sexual assault examination kits, expedite processing times and ensure that survivors can privately monitor the status of their own kit. The bill was sponsored by the governor.
- Senate Bill 100 — would establish the crime of organized theft, including mail theft and medical record theft.
- House Bill 242 — would redefine criminal law to prohibit any sexual contact or assault by a healthcare worker during professional treatment, a change to the current law that only applies to patients being unaware of sexual contact or assault for criminal charges to apply.
- Senate Bill 17 — would establish the crime of airbag fraud for knowingly selling, installing or manufacturing a counterfeit airbag in a vehicle.
- House Bill 81 — would establish that minor marijuana related convictions remain confidential on individuals’ personal records, under certain criteria.
- House Bill 384 — would expand confidentiality agreements between victims and service providers by updating the definition of “victim counseling center” to include tribal organizations.
- Senate Bill 233 — would reassign the administration of the Controlled Substances Advisory Committee from the Department of Law to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.
Changes to the Board of Parole
The provision to restructure the Alaska Board of Parole was originally introduced by Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, as Senate Bill 62 last year. The provision expands the Board of Parole from five to seven members, enacts term limits of no more than two five-year terms and implements new criteria for board seats.
The Board of Parole is appointed by the governor, and is charged with reviewing applications and eligibility for parole, for which there were 199 applicants last year. Advocates and lawmakers have raised concerns around Alaska’s parole approval rates dropping significantly in recent years — to some of the lowest rates in the nation.
Tobin and proponents of the changes to the parole board said the board’s workload was a reason to expand the board and said the added criteria for the board seats is important for fairness and accountability to those under review for parole.
The new criteria for board seats would require that one member be a licensed physician, psychologist or psychiatrist, one member have experience in the field of criminal justice, one member have experience in providing drug or alcohol addiction recovery support or who has personal experience with addiction, and one member of a federally recognized tribe in the state.
Senators also added criteria for parole eligibility so that parole board members consider an applicant’s age at the time of offense.
While the officials with the Alaska Department of Corrections have said rising costs across the prison system are in part due to an aging population and increasing medical needs, the Board of Parole has not granted anyone geriatric or medical parole in the last five years, according to state data.
Senators included a new provision to allow the corrections commissioner to authorize medical parole of a prisoner, with electronic monitoring, if that prisoner has a terminal, permanent or progressively degenerative disease and is deemed to not pose a threat to public safety. Senators also included legislation introduced last year, Senate Bill 31, to establish an address confidentiality program to help protect victims of domestic violence or stalking and police or correctional officers and their families. Individuals enrolled in the program will have their mail forwarded to a designated post office box to help keep their home address private.
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The Cincinnati Bengals’ 2021 Super Bowl run was driven by a sudden, ahead-of-schedule surge that caught the league off guard. Seven years into the Joe Burrow era, the franchise has shifted away from that postseason magic and toward building a deeper, more complete roster. Well, that’s at least how the Bengals’ franchise quarterback feels. Burrow made a strong claim about the Bengals’ 2026 roster when he met with reporters at voluntary organized team activities (OTAs) on Wednesday. “This is the most talented roster we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Burrow said. “The front office has taken a lot of heat from the fans, the public, the media. We can put all of that behind us. They went and made it happen with free agency.” But that wasn’t the only bold proclamation Burrow made on Wednesday, either. “The No. 1 thing is you have to win,” Burrow said, as the Bengals are seeking to make the postseason for the first time since 2022. “We’re going to go win a lot of games this year and play great and win a Super Bowl.” The Bengals were pretty active at shoring up their defense this offseason, even if they lost star edge rusher Trey Hendrickson to the Baltimore Ravens, which Burrow said was “not surprising.” They signed Seattle Seahawks edge rusher Boye Mafe, Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman Jonathan Allen, and Kansas City Chiefs safety Bryan Cook. But Cincinnati’s biggest move of the offseason came via trade. The Bengals traded the 10th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft to the New York Giants in order to get three-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence. “And then obviously, with Dexter [Lawrence], making a trade like that, that doesn’t happen a ton in the NFL,” Burrow said. “So it’s exciting to see.” Burrow’s comments came following some speculation earlier this offseason about his long-term future in Cincinnati. Some have wondered if Burrow’s long-term commitment would depend on whether the front office could find ways to upgrade its defense more effectively. While the offense has remained one of the league’s most dangerous units, the defense has struggled throughout much of Burrow’s prime. Over the last five seasons, Cincinnati has allowed 24.5 points and 380.8 yards per game. Despite that backdrop, Burrow said he remained largely removed from the team’s roster-building process this offseason. “I would say we had a lot of communication during free agency,” Burrow said. “We didn’t have our postseason meeting like we typically have. I would say if anything, I was less involved this year than in years past.” Even so, Burrow expressed clear approval of the direction the franchise has taken. “There’s no secret that the last several years didn’t go the way we wanted to, and there’s a lot of blame to go around for that, myself included,” Burrow said. “We’re in a great spot this year. We brought in great people and great players. You can feel the vibes of the locker room.” That renewed energy has carried into offseason workouts, where the Bengals have reportedly shown increased urgency on both sides of the ball. Burrow pointed to the blend of veteran leadership and younger players as a key factor in raising the standard across the roster. “The energy is elevated right now,” Burrow said. “We have some veteran guys that can come in and show the younger guys on defense what it takes, what it means to be great every day. That’s exciting to be a part of.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
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