AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n
Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n One of my favorite events each year on the Charlotte sports calendar \u2014 the ACC football championship \u2014 could vanish as early as 2027.<\/p>\n Read more Did Duke basketball just find its next star walk-on? Davidson Day grad hopes so<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s not because the ACC plans to move the game, which has been played in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium in 15 of the past 16 seasons. It\u2019s not because the game hasn\u2019t been a success \u2014 because it has.<\/p>\n It\u2019s because the game itself \u2014 like every other conference championship game at college football\u2019s highest level \u2014 could disappear entirely, erased by the sport\u2019s proposed playoff expansion.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s make a couple of things clear: First, this season\u2019s game is not<\/i> in any danger. It will be played on Dec. 5, 2026, at noon, between the conference\u2019s top two teams.<\/p>\n Second, this is not an \u201cACC is doing something bad to Charlotte\u201d sort of thing \u2014 the conference and its headquarter city are joined at the hip and have linked up in a multi-pronged partnership that has been great for both sides in numerous ways.<\/p>\n No, this is a national thing. And the way the wind is blowing, the ACC football championship game may get swept up by a tornado of change when and if the College Football Playoff (CFP) bracket expands from 12 teams (where it will stay again in 2026) to as many as 24 teams.<\/p>\n To fit in more playoff games and still end the season at a reasonable time, something has to go. If the hypothetical 24-team playoff comes to pass, the conference championship games are squarely in the danger zone.<\/p>\n This would not be good news for Charlotte, which annually hosts the ACC football championship in December. (It\u2019s safe this year however.) https:\/\/t.co\/UbtkFp4uRr<\/a><\/p>\n For the first time on Wednesday, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips came out publicly in favor of expanding the CFP from 12 to 24 teams<\/a>. In his press conference at Amelia Island, Fla., at the conclusion of the league\u2019s annual meetings, Phillips said the league\u2019s position is that a 24-team playoff would be the logical next step for the CFP. He said his conversations with the league\u2019s head coaches and athletic directors had convinced him this was the right path.<\/p>\n \u201cThe desire with the coaches and the ADs is to go to 24,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n And what happens then to conference championship games like the ones that the SEC, the ACC and many other conferences hold?<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at championship games and if you expand the playoff to that number,\u201d Phillips said, \u201cI think you end up going from regular season right into the playoff. I just think you end up doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Football Coaches Association \u2014 which doesn\u2019t control the sport but does have a large voice in it \u2014 has already recommended that conference championship games be eliminated to help fix the length of the season. The Charlotte Sports Foundation, which has been instrumental in running both the ACC title game and many other sports-related events in our city, declined comment Thursday. (The ACC\u2019s college football championship has had an estimated economic impact of roughly $26 million per year over the past five years).<\/p>\n The college season now stretches from late August until January, and the next two college football seasons won\u2019t end until late January. The AFCA recommends ending the season by the second Monday in January.<\/p>\n Read more SBI wants license-plate scanners covering \u2018all entrances and exits\u2019 to NC<\/a><\/p>\n Why does the ACC want to double the size of the CFP? Phillips said that you increase both \u201caccess\u201d to the playoff and \u201chope\u201d among the teams who aren\u2019t quite at the top tier. He pointed out that the NFL \u2014 where 14 of 32 teams make the playoffs each year \u2014 has 44% of its teams in the postseason. (The Panthers made the playoffs last season with an 8-9 regular-season record, which would be unfathomable in college football).<\/p>\n College football has dozens of bowl games. But as for the CFP itself, only 12 of 138 teams will make it this season, which is 9%. The ACC has been personally burned by the CFP, too \u2014 in 2023, in the final year of the four-team playoff, undefeated league champion Florida State still got shut out of the bracket.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s about access,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re going to ask presidents and chancellors and boards to continue to invest in their football programs, it\u2019s really important that they have hope, that they have an opportunity at the beginning of the season to get into the playoff.\u201d<\/p>\n The Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have now proclaimed they are in favor of a 24-team system, which would start as early as 2027. The SEC, however, has not, and might end up scotching the whole idea, or at least keeping the playoff to a more modest 16. The upcoming SEC meetings in Destin, Fla., will be key.<\/p>\n Hypothetically, if the playoff field goes to 24, Charlotte\u2019s conference championship game could be a thing of the past as early as 2027. Although the game is contracted to be in Charlotte through the 2030 season, that\u2019s based on the fact of the game existing at all, and my understanding is there would not be any significant contractual hurdles to jump if the game simply disappears.<\/p>\n All would not be lost, however: the Queen City could be well-positioned for a neutral site College Football Playoff game. Among the statistics Charlotte can tout is a new one that came out this week: Census data shows<\/a> that no other U.S. city added more people in the past year than Charlotte.<\/p>\n One way or another, it seems that the CFP will soon be reimagined. Clemson\u2019s Dabo Swinney, whose team has won eight of the previous 11 ACC championship games, told reporters at the ACC meetings this week that he didn\u2019t want conference title games to go away but that he got the logic.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I like it? No,\u201d Swinney said. \u201cBut I totally understand it, because that\u2019s where it\u2019s going\u2026. Sooner or later, if you keep adding games, the calendar\u2019s only got so many dates.\u201d<\/p>\n Conference championship games have been controversial previously but have survived, with coaches whose teams were already likely to make the CFP openly wondering about whether a loss \u2014 or a key injury \u2014 would hurt them far more than a win would help. And while conference title games are part of the game for a generation of fans, the first one wasn\u2019t until 1992, when the SEC debuted one. So there were decades worth of college football games played without them.<\/p>\n And while the ACC title games in Charlotte have generally been well-attended, last year\u2019s was not. The Duke upset win over Virginia was played before one of the smallest crowds in ACC championship game history, with an announced attendance of 41,672. That left 30,000 empty seats in Bank of America Stadium, with tarps covering significant portions of the upper deck end zones on a 39-degree night.<\/p>\n Still, there was drama, and Charlotte\u2019s ACC title game has produced a lot of that over the years.<\/p>\n The ACC football championship is the biggest college football game played here, every year. In many ways, it would be a shame to lose it.<\/p>\n Read more Gunfire in the middle of the night kills one person, wounds a second, CMPD says<\/a><\/p>\n