The Big Ten and the SEC are currently gridlocked when it comes to a College Football Playoff expansion. Even though the CFP was just expanded to 12 teams in 2024, discussions have been underway about adding more teams, but the top two conferences in college football are making things very difficult.
The Big Ten is willing to make a compromise, though in order to get what it really wants, which is a 24-team playoff. The conference is willing to allow a 16-team playoff with a commitment from the rest of the sports to expand to 24 teams within three days, as reported by CBS Sports.
If all goes to plan and it works out this way for the Big Ten, that would allow a lot more teams in the playoff, which would change a lot of things for the postseason of college football. Teams that have yet to make it to the CFP would have their best chance, including Nebraska.
Nebraska's best chance at making the CFP would come with a 24-team expansion
With the potential of more teams being added to the College Football Playoff, Nebraska will no longer have an excuse for missing it in the future. The Cornhuskers have to find a way to win enough games to get into the CFP, and some of that will come down to winning the winnable ones against ranked opponents.
Nebraska has not beaten a ranked opponent since 2016, which is over a 30-game losing streak for the Cornhuskers. There is no way they will find a spot even in a 24-team CFP if they can't find a way to break that streak sometime in the near future.
Head coach Matt Rhule has proved he can rebuild programs from nothing, but he is doing it in a very difficult age of college sports, where players are here one minute and gone the next. If there is an expansion, Rhule will have to find the winning formula because time will eventually run out, and Nebraska will go find someone that can.