Surprising reason why Phillip Fulmer opposes 24-team playoff for Tennessee
Tennessee would’ve made as many as 13 College Football Playoff appearances in 16 seasons under coach Phillip Fulmer if a 24-team bracket existed back then.
Perhaps that realization helped turn Fulmer from a playoff critic to a supporter in recent years. He grew to like the four-team playoff and eventually the 12-team format. And he could be in favor of expanding to 16 teams.
But a 24-team playoff? That may be one step too far for the last coach to lead the Vols to a national championship.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do. (SEC) commissioner (Greg) Sankey is pretty dead set on sticking with 16 teams (in an anticipated expansion). I think that's a good number," Fulmer said. "But if you go to 24, you might as well let everybody in because you’re almost taking the whole top 25. I wouldn’t like that.”
Fulmer shared his thoughts with Knox News while promoting his annual charity golf tournament, which has raised more than $3 million for Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley.
The 27th annual Phillip Fulmer Golf Classic will take place at Avalon Golf and Country Club on May 8. An online auction will be held May 4-8 at fulmerauction.com .
Why Josh Heupel, Danny White want 24-team playoff
The College Football Playoff will remain at 12 teams in the 2026 season, but there’s momentum to expand it as early as 2027.
The Big Ten wants a 24-team format, including the 23 highest-ranked teams and one guaranteed spot for a Group of Six mid-major conference school. The SEC leadership wants a 16-team format, including five conference champions and 11 at-large bids.
But UT coach Josh Heupel told On3.com’s Chris Low that a 24-team playoff “ makes sense ” in this era, and other SEC coaches like Georgia’s Kirby Smart agree. UT athletics director Danny White has long been a proponent of the 24-team playoff , including when he was athletics director at UCF.
Fulmer admits he could change his mind. He’s done it before.
“I wasn’t for any type of playoff back in the day,” Fulmer said. “But after seeing it play out, I think it’s a really great thing. So any playoff benefits a team that loses early in the season but gets better and better.”
The intriguing question is whether Tennessee football’s heyday would’ve been better or worse if a playoff had been around.
How would Peyton Manning teams have fared in playoff?
Playing out the what-if scenarios is a fun exercise when considering programs like Tennessee that won at a consistent level in an era before the playoff.
A deep dive by Knox News in 2023 revealed that the Vols would’ve made a 12-team playoff twice in the 1980s, eight times in the 1990s and twice in the 2000s.
Some of Fulmer’s best teams could’ve made a run through a playoff bracket, especially those with star quarterback Peyton Manning that were only derailed by a loss to Florida. Of course, Fulmer’s 1998 team may not have won the national title if it had go through a bracket unblemished.
Fulmer is aware of both possibilities.
“There was ’95, ’97, ’99, ’01, and I may be missing one,” said Fulmer, listing some of his national title contenders that came up short. “But in ’98, I didn’t want to play any more games (after winning the BCS national championship game over Florida State).”
That being said, there’s a strong case that Tennessee’s 1998 team was built for a playoff run. It had a balanced attack, a veteran coaching staff, a lockdown defense, depth at every position and a physical style of play that would’ve held up over multiple games.
These Phillip Fulmer teams would've made playoff
Fulmer’s Tennessee teams would’ve made a 16-team playoff eight times in 16 seasons.
His Vols would’ve made a 24-team playoff either 12 or 13 times. His 1994 squad was ranked 24th in the coaches poll but unranked in the AP poll going into the postseason, and there’s no way to know where a CFP selection committee would’ve placed it.
But it makes sense that Fulmer would look down on teams barely making the bracket in a 24-team field. His teams would’ve earned a first-round bye seven times in his first 11 seasons at UT in a 24-team bracket. Adding teams during those seasons would've watered down the field.
Notably, UT also would’ve made a 24-team playoff in six of the last eight seasons of Johnny Majors’ coaching tenure before Fulmer took over in 1993.
Of course, judging the past through the lens of the present isn’t a precise exercise. There was no transfer portal or NIL back then. And some national title contenders were in the now-defunct conferences like the Big 8, Big East and Southwest Conference.
But in the near future, programs like Tennessee could see their playoff hopes determined by the size of the bracket.
Phillip Fulmer Golf Classic, auction information
The auction for the Fulmer charity tournament will be open from 9 a.m. on May 4 to 6 p.m. on May 8. Notable items include a two-person package to the 2026 Lexus Champions for Charity National Championship at Pebble Beach, Tailgate Tennessee Touchdown package at Circle Park, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort golf package and a Disney World VIP package valued at $10,000.
Former UT players will join Fulmer at the tournament: Al Wilson, Deon Grant, Carl Pickens, Fred White, Robert Peace, Kelly Ziegler, Chris White, Jani Trupovnieks.
All proceeds benefit 27 Boys & Girls Clubs in Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Knox, and Loudon Counties.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com . X, formerly known as Twitter @AdamSparks . Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe .
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Phillip Fulmer opposes 24-team CFP as former Tennessee football coach
