As the debate over College Football Playoff expansion focuses on whether the postseason tournament should grow to 16 or 24 teams, an idea to find middle ground might illustrate just how far apart both sides remain. The middle-ground proposal is for a 20-team playoff that would replace conference championship games with four “play-in” contests for the final four spots of a 16-team field, according to sources familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on private conversations.

The notion was a surprise to almost everyone on a Monday videoconference of the CFP management committee (made up of 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director), said sources who were on the call. The 20-team format wasn’t on the agenda, and it only came up after one participant inquired about an X post from college football media personality Josh Pate, who wrote on Sunday that the idea was percolating. Discussion of the matter during Monday’s meeting was brief and dismissed, as the agenda instead focused on potential CFP expansion to 16 and 24 teams. But those conversations didn’t advance much, either.

The belief is that ESPN — the exclusive broadcast rights holder for CFP and SEC games — could be interested in the 20-team compromise rather than the 24-team model favored by the Big Ten.

The 20-team idea was not a new one — it’s one of numerous models the group has seen for more than a year — but it had not been seriously discussed, including at the group’s in-person meeting in Denver in June. It was also considered more of a 16-team hybrid by people aware of it, rather than a 20-team format.

Under the idea, the first 12 CFP berths would be guaranteed in some form (by selection committee rankings and/or automatic qualifying spots), while eight additional teams would vie for the final four spots in play-in games. Many specifics remain unclear, but one idea would be to match up play-in teams across conferences, rather than within a conference or based solely on CFP selection committee rankings.

However, this concept creates several obstacles.

For one, the Big Ten doesn’t like it, which is partly why Monday’s conversation went nowhere. The Big Ten and SEC hold the power to determine the next format and have yet to reach an agreement after more than a year.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said in May that his league was solely focused on a 24-team model. He reiterated last month the league had moved beyond last year’s 16-team conversation, which could have included intraconference play-in games. Petitti’s selling point on 24 has been increased access to the postseason, as schools spend greater sums on rosters. Despite not having voting power, the ACC and Big 12 have also expressed support for 24 for the same reason.

Then there’s the financial aspect. Conference championship games are worth more than $200 million to the conferences in broadcast rights fees, so any additional playoff rounds that replace them would need to more than make up for that amount. A 24-team CFP would naturally have more games to sell than a 20-team model.

Which is where ESPN comes in. The network controls the full rights to any CFP up to 14 teams through 2031, and it has already expressed its opposition to large-scale expansion to the conferences. Although ESPN would have the first right to broadcast negotiations for a larger field, some sources with knowledge of the discussions believe the network might not be willing to pay for an entire expanded Playoff. ESPN is already licensing five CFP games to TNT Sports, beginning this season.

Fox Sports, which holds the Big Ten broadcast rights, has stated that it prefers a 24-team field and would be interested in acquiring rights for it. The broadcast interest in additional games is there, though it is difficult to project the value of the extra contests without going to market.

ESPN holds the rights for the SEC, Big 12 and ACC championship games that would be replaced by an expanded CFP format. Could the network use the money saved from that to buy the handful of new games from a 20-team field and keep the whole thing? That’s at least one theory.

But the mood coming out of Monday’s meeting was that a 20-team model will not be taken seriously. The SEC and Big Ten remain far apart.

If the two leagues cannot agree on a new format by Dec. 1 (or an extended deadline), the 2027 playoff would maintain the current 12-team model. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said earlier this year that he expected conversations around expansion to continue into the fall before reaching a resolution. After yet another CFP meeting without major decisions, the fall approaches.

Former Chicago White Sox All-Star and American League batting champion Tim Anderson announced his retirement on an emotional video call with reporters Monday morning.

During the call, Anderson, 33, started crying and constantly wiped sweat from his brow that was caused, he said, by the weight of the moment.

“As you can see, the game brung a lot of good moments,” he said, “but it also brung a lot of pain. It gives me anxiety just even … talking about baseball. I’m sweating now.

“I want to be as open as I can,” he continued. “The game brought a lot of pain, a lot of great moments, but just throughout playing, it definitely was a lot of dark moments.”

The pressure was intense because on the field, Anderson became the symbol for a White Sox team searching for an identity while he was dealing with issues in his personal life.

Anderson won an AL batting title in 2019 and was the centerpiece of the “Change the Game” campaign as the White Sox rebuild took shape, peaking in 2021 with the team’s first division title since 2008. The Sox also made the playoffs in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, marking the only time in franchise history the White Sox have reached the postseason in consecutive seasons.

His biggest moment was hitting a walk-off homer into the corn at the Field of Dreams Game in 2021, and he also inspired a national conversation about adding personality back to baseball with his bat-flipping celebrations. For years, there has been a focus on the declining number of African American stars in baseball, and Anderson, a native of Alabama, the state that has produced several Black baseball legends, was the face of a new generation.

Tim Anderson jumps into the pile to celebrate his walk-off home run during the 2021 Field of Dreams game. (Ron Vesely / Getty Images)

“We had A.J. (Pierzynski), A.J. had a pretty big personality, but we’ve never had someone with the swagger and confidence of Tim Anderson, which seems to be carrying through the clubhouse,” White Sox vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer told me before the 2021 season.

This led to Anderson receiving national advertising opportunities and plenty of local fame. But that came with a cost, he said, and the pressure affected him in different ways.

“I worked my whole life to get there,” he said. “I never knew the route. I never knew which turn. I never had no guidance. I just kept going. As you know, that was my saying: Just keep going. I know I came to the ballpark every day ready to compete, ready to play for that logo that’s on the front of the jersey, and that’s what I did. Nobody knows what I sacrificed and what the body felt every day.”

Anderson was drafted with the No. 17 pick in the 2013 MLB Draft out of East Central Community College in Mississippi and debuted with the White Sox in 2016. Over eight seasons with the team, he hit .282, winning a batting title in 2019 with a .335 average and finishing in the top five in that statistic the next two years. He was an All-Star in 2021 and started at shortstop for the American League in the 2022 Midsummer Classic. He hit .309 that season, but a groin injury limited him to 79 games. His game never rebounded.

In 2023, his production nosedived and he infamously got knocked down by the Guardians’ José Ramirez in a brief, viral fight in Cleveland. As Anderson recounted in an interview with “The Pivot” podcast, he was also going through personal and family issues during this period.

The Sox, who were in the middle of an organizational free fall, let him go in free agency after the season. He played in Miami in 2024 and with the Angels in 2025 before getting released in May of last year. Lower body and leg injuries hampered a return to form.

“I fought to try to get back,” he said. “I fought for the last two or three years. I trained and just couldn’t get the body to operate like it used to.”

Anderson said he’s in a good place now, living in suburban Atlanta with his wife and children. Not having to worry about hitting curveballs has done a lot for his mental health, he joked.

“Waking up and being able to be around my kids and really living a real life, because life is bigger than trying to make people happy with a bat and a ball, you know what I mean?” he said. “So now that I get to step outside of that and see what life is, I’m really enjoying it.”

The White Sox will honor him before a Sept. 17 game. Anderson will throw out the first pitch and the team will wear the “Southside” alternate uniforms that he helped make famous.

“I am Chicago,” he told The Athletic in 2021. “I will rock the gear. Just because I’m playing for them doesn’t mean I won’t rock it. I’ll rock it more now.”

He said he wants to return to the resurgent Sox franchise to help in any way he can. Despite being a first-round pick, Anderson was a project, a basketball player who didn’t seriously take up baseball until his late teens. No one projected him to win a batting title or become an All-Star shortstop, but the White Sox gave him an opportunity to change his life.

“I am definitely happy for my moments,” he said. “But I get sad talking about it because that’s the first team that gave me my opportunity. It took a chance on me. I didn’t have a crazy resume. I didn’t play all the crazy little camps and stuff. They gave me a shot and they stuck by my side. I think it’s only right that I get to come back and retire a White Sox.”

After the tears subsided during the call, a familiar smile returned. Once he got through the hard part, Anderson sounded lighter and more relaxed than he ever did as a player.

“I finally get a chance to be open with you guys because when I was playing, it was just straight business,” he said. “So now being on this side, I get to feel those emotions. I feel all that stuff. And so finally to get the chance to really be in it and soak it in and enjoy the fruits of the labor. I’m excited about that and no better place to do it than the South Side.”