Skull Session: A 16-Team College Football Playoff in 2026 is Gaining Momentum, Noon Kickoffs Strike Again, Former OSU Fullback Bob White Dies

By Garrick Hodge on May 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
Skull Session
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It's the offseason and Chase just enjoyed his final day of vacation.

Therefore, your friendly neighborhood Garrick Hodge is here to pinch hit on the Tuesday Skull Session and write something that at the very least hopefully doesn't make you spit out your morning coffee.

 A 16-TEAM PLAYOFF IS GAINING MOMENTUM. This sort of flew under the radar over the weekend, but two prolific college football news breakers, ESPN's Pete Thamel and Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger, each reported there's growing support in the sport for a 16-team College Football Playoff that would begin in the 2026 season.

In short, if both of these guys are reporting it, there's a very good chance this is going to be our new reality in the near future. The change won't take long to implement, with a final decision on the playoff format expected within a few months.

Listen, I'm firmly in the pro-CFP expansion camp with college football, but even I think changing the format just two years after implementing a new system is crazy. But whatever, all of us would be arguing with a wall if we continue to advocate that point, considering it seems like a foregone conclusion we're headed to either a 14 or 16-team bracket in 2026.

Assuming it's going to be 16 teams, how would it work? Well, it appears we're headed toward autobids from each conference, with the Big Ten and the SEC each getting four, the Big 12 and the ACC each getting two, the Group of Five getting one and three at-large berths handed out (which will be Notre Dame and two others if the Fighting Irish are a top-16 team in a given year). 

Frankly, if you pitched the idea of conference autobids to me a year ago, I probably would have thrown up and wondered where the common sense around the sport has gone. But we're well past that point now in my mind. And if we're being honest, I'm already starting to see the silver linings of what a 16-team field with autobids could mean.

  • The SEC is finally, finally, probably going to stop scheduling cupcakes in the second-to-last week of the season and move to nine conference games instead of eight. 
  • The Big Ten and the SEC (and well the other two Power Four conferences) can play each other much more frequently now that there's reduced consequences for losing, considering your conference record is going to be the ultimate factor in determining whether you're eligible for the autobid or not.
  • Piggybacking off that point, there's going to be such an emphasis on winning your conference and dominating the regular season. Outside of the actual seeding, the thing I liked least about the 12-team CFP last year was how little incentive there was to win your conference title game. Ask Oregon if it could do everything all over again if it would prefer it had lost to Penn State at Lucas Oil Stadium. Then, the Ducks get to play SMU and Boise State in the first two playoff games instead of drawing Ohio State. Under this format, I presume the Big Ten and the SEC will turn conference championship weekend into two playoff games where No. 3 plays No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5 in the standings, with the winner of each game getting one of the four autobids. The top two finishers earn the other two spots and presumably get what's considered a de facto bye week, because ... 
  • If you have a 16-team field, every team would play in the first round and you wouldn't have a situation where teams are off for an entire month before taking the field again, which caused a lot of angst from the losing sides considering every team that got a bye lost in the quarterfinals.
  • The anti-expansion crowd has argued that an expanded CFP field waters down the regular season, and depending on your perspective, it undoubtedly does to some degree. But if last season taught us anything, it also ensures the regular season has far more meaning for far more teams in terms of playoff stakes for a much longer duration.  
  • If we're being honest, while the Big 12 and the ACC may feel insulted that they are getting less automatic bids than their two Power Four counterparts, both of them should jump for joy knowing they would be guaranteed to have two teams in the field, with the potential for more with the at-large bids. Not that recruiting rankings are everything, but all it takes is one look at the top recruiting classes in the sport to tell you which two leagues boast the most talent in football right now.

Still confused and/or outraged? Don't worry, if you hate this proposed format, they'll probably just change it again in two years.

 NOON KICKOFFS STRIKE AGAIN. Ohio State fans received some news Monday that caused quite a stir on these here interwebs. 

Fox announced Monday that it used its first two picks in the very secretive, untelevised draft of Big Ten games from networks on a pair of games featuring Ohio State: The Buckeyes' rivalry game against Michigan and OSU's season opener against Texas.

And as Uncle Ben once said, with great, lucrative TV contracts from FOX, comes Big Noon Kickoff. Judging based on our comments from our report on the news, OSU fans have noon kickoff PTSD tenfold, considering the Cotton Bowl rematch in Week 1 would be the seventh straight regular season game with a noon kickoff OSU has played in if that's indeed the time slot in the cards for the Buckeyes.

Maybe there's something weird going on behind the scenes because for what it's worth, FOX's article Monday initially specified the Texas vs. Ohio State game would be a noon kickoff, but the declaration of a set kickoff time has since been removed. An Ohio State spokesperson also couldn't confirm a specific game time to Eleven Warriors on Monday, either, nor did any of the graphics announce a set time.

Ultimately, it's practically become an annual tradition for The Game to be played at noon, so whatever. But if that's the case for the Texas game, which could very well be preseason No. 1 vs. No. 2...

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves without a caveat. Unlike many fans, yours truly LOVES noon games. It's by far the biggest discrepancy I've experienced from college football fans and those in the media who cover the sport. My love for noon kickoffs stems from a simple concept.

If it's an early game, the work day ends at around 7 p.m., I get to catch almost all of the late-game slate, and I can get an early jump on my work the next day, which is a huge plus. If the Buckeyes get the late kick, it's a guarantee the 11W beat team is working into the wee hours of the morning. It's not the end of the world, nor should anybody besides us care considering it's the gig we signed up for which I believe has far more positives than negatives. But I'd be lying if I said it isn't draining sometimes. 

This context is all to say, despite my borderline championing of noon kickoffs (though I'm not ever going to go full Joe Klatt on you), even I think it's crazy if this game isn't under the lights.

Ohio State vs. Texas at The Shoe isn't a matchup you get very often and there's so many intriguing storylines. Arch Manning's first start in a big spot. The start of Ohio State's title defense. The new era of either Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz. Watching Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs play football again. You get the point. 

When the Buckeyes head to Austin next year, you can write it in ink right now that it'll be a primetime kickoff on ABC, with OSU having to contend with a hostile environment.

There's also real recruiting consequences from noon games. This should be by far and away Ohio State's biggest recruiting weekend of the season. And it still might be, primetime or not. But there's very likely going to be out-of-state recruits, primarily from the West Coast and the South, who won't be able to make it because of the short turnaround from their high school games on Friday.  

Nontheless, fans and media alike can shout from the rooftops about their disdain for noon games, but there's only so much you can do. The Big Ten agreed to a contract that pays it a gazillion dollars, and playing on Big Noon Kickoff is part of that agreement. Ohio State is a giant brand, and it's going to find itself on Big Noon Kickoff often because of it. Them's the breaks. Doesn't make it suck any less, but there's nothing anyone can do about it until the next TV contract negotiation years from now.

Perhaps common sense will prevail and FOX will find a way to get this game into primetime where it belongs. It ain't official until it's official, right? (Or deleted from the internet for a second time).

But should the game end up being at noon, I can guarantee you all eyes are going to turn to Ross Bjork, who told Eleven Warriors OSU has made a point of emphasis to enhance Ohio State's gameday atmosphere at The Shoe in his second year as the school's athletic director. When you don't have the luxury of time (and well, booze) getting the fans rowdy for a late-night kickoff, I'm very curious to see what changes the athletic department will make to try to create a hostile environment in a crucial game against the Longhorns.

 FORMER OSU FULLBACK BOB WHITE PASSES AWAY. Monday brought some unfortunate news in the Ohio State sports world. 

Former All-American OSU fullback Bob White passed away at 86 years old on May 7, according to a report from the Columbus Dispatch. 

White was a central figure in the Buckeyes' 1957 championship team and was inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame in 1987. He was ranked No. 80 in Eleven Warriors' ranking of the top 100 all-time Buckeyes in 2015.

Our condolences go out to the White family, and he'll always be remembered as one of the all-time greats to don the scarlet and gray.

 BRUTUS SAYS GOODBYE. One of the Ohio State students who portrayed Brutus, the lovable OSU mascot, over the past few seasons has graduated and culminated their collegiate mascot career.

As it turns out, the person behind the mask was actually the fourth female ever to don the Brutus head, according to NBC4: Emily Hayward.

She was the first woman to play Brutus since Emily Williams in 2002, and her farewell post has gone viral on the interwebs. 

We wish Hayward well in her future endeavors, and now I'll only wonder if it was her or another student portraying Brutus who humorously sat down next to me on a gameday and picked up one of my cameras in an attempt to "photograph" the next play.

 SONG OF THE DAY. “One” – Metallica (look, I'm sorry, or you're welcome, that you're getting Metallica on back-to-back days but that's what happens when I just watched them live twice in a four-day span).

 A HODGEPODGE OF LINKS. Cannes makes it official: No nudity on the red carpet... Chicago sports fans are embracing "DA" new pope ... Police found a missing woman 60 years after she disappeared. She wants to stay hidden ... An Australian woman is on trial for murder by toxic mushrooms ... Ex-Ohio State wrestler, gold medalist Kyle Snyder busted in prostitution sting ... McDonald's celebrates McFlurry's 30th birthday with Canada-only treat.

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