Michael Wilbon Puts ESPN, FOX On Blast Over College Football Playoff

Like most football fans, ESPN's Michael Wilbon is not at all amused by the impending expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams and gave multiple networks a piece of his mind over it.

Appearing on First Take, Wilbon admonished FOX and ESPN-ABC for allowing their college football "turf war" to disrupt the game of football entirely. He ripped the idea of a 24-team playoff and accused all of the networks of massive greed for enticing the powers that be in the sport to expand.

"This is about ESPN/ABC and Fox, this is about some turf wars going on there with conference affiliations… nobody should want 24, nobody. We hear all this nonsense about health and safety, what hypocrisy," Wilbon said. "Health and safety? You want to add as many as five games to a college schedule?"

Truth or Consequences

Fans praised Wilbon for being "spot on" with his criticism.

"The 24-team playoff is like AI--no one wants it and yet we are getting it jammed down our throat for $ reasons," one user remarked on X.

"Absolutely spot on," wrote another.

"Holy (expletive) Wilbon has been cooking recently," a third wrote.

Ironically, ESPN has a vested interest in Wilbon speaking out against the expansion of the College Football Playoff. If the Playoff expands, ESPN loses its exclusivity over broadcast rights.

Many people have pointed out that it behooves ESPN and its talent to criticize the CFP expanding to 24 teams as much as possible for the sake of retaining that status.

Whether or not this is actually influencing the opinions of some who are criticizing it, we may never know.

Copyright The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 9:02 AM.