College football's postseason is about to look a lot more like the NFL's.

The College Football Playoff and ESPN announced Monday that the playoff will grow from 12 teams to 24 beginning next season. The deal has been in the works for months. ESPN reported it will pay an extra $1.7 billion over five years on top of its $7.8 billion contract that runs through the 2031 season.

The new format gives automatic spots to the four Power Four conference champions plus the best team from the Group of Six. A selection committee will fill the other 19 spots.

What changes

The top eight seeds will get first-round byes. The playoff will start the second weekend of December with the first two rounds played on campus. Traditional bowl games will still host the quarterfinals and semifinals. The first 24-team final is set for Jan. 24, 2028, in New Orleans.

Conference championship games are going away. The Army-Navy game will move into the first weekend of December, which used to belong to those title games. The regular season will start the week before Labor Day and include two guaranteed off weeks.

Power Four teams will have to play at least 10 regular-season games against conference opponents, other Power Four schools or Notre Dame. Group of Six teams will need 10 conference games. Notre Dame no longer gets any special guarantee of a spot.

Mixed reactions

About 30% of the 68 power-conference schools will now have a shot at the title. Critics worry the move waters down one of the most meaningful regular seasons in sports. Even ESPN senior vice president Nick Dawson admitted, "In all honesty, it's impossible to know for sure" how the change will affect regular-season games.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman called it a net positive. "I don't want this to be like March Madness and have 60-something teams making the playoff," he said. "But the more opportunities we have to make the playoff, it helps us."

Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell is on board. "If they think it's a good thing for college football, then I've got to believe that this is the route we're headed," he said.