'Why Do We Have Conferences?' Drinkwitz and Dickert Question College Football's Future as the 24-Team Playoff Ends Title Games

College football is about to become something it has never been, and two head coaches are saying out loud what many fans have been thinking.

When the College Football Playoff grows to 24 teams in 2027, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC will stop playing conference championship games; this season's games on Dec. 5 will be the last, according to The Daily Wire and Newsweek. That raises a question Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz put bluntly at his news conference on Tuesday: "why are we associated with conferences anymore," Yahoo Sports reported.

Drinkwitz questioned whether a scheduling arrangement alone is worth sending teams across the country, as many of today's sprawling conferences require, Yahoo Sports, Breitbart and Newsweek reported. He told reporters that one of his goals when he arrived at Missouri in 2020 was to win an SEC title in Atlanta, and that he is disappointed that chance is going away, Newsweek reported.

Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert, speaking Monday, said he understood the logic but that the change could help or hurt a program like his. He told reporters that the format forces everyone's hand and that he does not like it, saying it "just feels odd," Breitbart reported. Newsweek reported that Dickert also wondered aloud why conferences exist at all under the new system.

The CFP's management committee unanimously approved the 24-team format, announced Nov. 9, according to The Daily Wire. The champions of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC and the top-ranked team from the remaining conferences will receive automatic bids, with 19 at-large spots for everyone else, ESPN reported.

The top eight seeds will get first-round byes and host second-round games, while seeds nine through 16 will host seeds 17 through 24, according to ESPN. Sixteen of the playoff's 23 games will be played on campus, up from four now, while the quarterfinals and semifinals will stay at the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose and Sugar bowls, The Daily Wire reported.

The 2027 regular season will run from Aug. 28 to Nov. 27, the first round will be played Dec. 9-11, and the national championship game is set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans, ESPN reported. Without title games, the Big 12 has confirmed that its regular-season champion will receive its automatic bid, while the other leagues are still deciding how they will crown a champion, The Daily Wire reported.

For decades, conference championships have been a pillar of the sport, and the SEC's title game became a December tradition in Atlanta, the prize Drinkwitz says he came to Missouri to chase. Rivalries were built on the chance to meet again with a title on the line.

Drinkwitz framed the bigger worry in terms of fans. He said playoff expansion, the transfer portal and the end of title games are draining the spark from the sport, that bowl games have lost value and regional rivalries have faded, and he asked whether anyone has truly considered the fan, according to Yahoo Sports.

Supporters of the new format see it differently. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has pointed to the format's tiered incentives, with byes and home games for the top seeds, and to the value of adding 12 more home games for the sport, ESPN reported. More teams in the hunt also means more meaningful games in November.

None of this changes the stakes this fall. In the CFP selection committee's second rankings, released Tuesday, Georgia moved to No. 1 at 8-1, followed by unbeaten Utah, Alabama and unbeaten UCLA. Wake Forest sits at No. 13 at 8-1, just outside this year's 12-team field, and Missouri is No. 22 at 6-3.

Drinkwitz and Dickert are not old-timers yelling at the clouds. They are coaches inside the system asking the right questions. College football's magic has always come from belonging: to a school, a region, a rivalry and a conference that meant something. When the season's biggest December games disappear and teams cross the country for league games that no longer decide a champion, fans have every reason to ask what is being gained and what is being lost.

A bigger playoff will bring big moments, and campus playoff games could be electric. But the people running the sport should listen to coaches like these before the traditions that made it great are gone for good.

What comes next: this season's conference title games on Dec. 5 will be the last of their kind for the four biggest leagues, and the leagues still have to decide how they will name champions in 2027.