![Florida Head Coach Jon Sumrall protests a call during the second half of an NCAA football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 7, 2026. Gators lost 23-7. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_3000,h_1687/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ReutersImages/mmsport/213/01m70trjnryf07sea2kv.jpg "Florida Head Coach Jon Sumrall protests a call during the second half of an NCAA football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 7, 2026. Gators lost 23-7. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]")
The playoffs in college football are officially expanding to 24 teams starting next season. Did anyone besides ESPN really ask for this? Besides embattled coaches, the answer is no; no, they did not.
But in some ways, this can be a blessing and a curse for coaches, as there will be even more pressure and scrutiny on Jon Sumrall entering the 2027 season.
Jon Sumrall will have even more pressure on him in 2027 with expanded playoffs
We here at Hail Florida Hail have expressed our frustrations with the pathway the 2026 season has gone, but we will make this official stance clear:
No, we are not advocating for Jon Sumrall to be fired.
For the record, we didn’t officially call for the Man in the Black Polo to get fired until game three of his third year.
But one thing the expanded playoffs are going to highlight are teams that can’t even make a 24-team field. One can make the argument that Sumrall and company were never going to make a 12-team playoff this year and that’s fair enough, but would it be that unreasonable to state that if Sumrall and Florida can’t make a 24-team field in 2027 that we can have fair and legitimate questions as to just how long this rebuild will take?
Because in the modern era of college football, the transfer portal is the great equalizer that allows teams to address direct flaws on the team. Indiana went from one of the worst teams in college football history to national champions in two years under Curt Cignetti. Likewise, Wake Forest was 4-8 two years ago, and now Jake Dickert has them at 8-1.
UCLA was 3-9 last year, so while they may have a soft schedule this year, let’s not pretend that Bob Chesney doesn’t deserve his flowers. Kentucky was 5-7 last year, got a new coach (Will Stein), and they are now 7-2.
If all of these teams within two years have put themselves in a position to make a 24-team field that Florida would currently miss, what excuse would Sumrall have if he missed it in 2027?
For what it’s worth, Sumrall claims he is aware of the shortcomings of the program this year, and he claims he has a plan to address them. And it is 100% possible that Florida fixes a couple of things and all is well next year.
All we know is that a 24-team field only exacerbates a program’s failure if they can’t even make that.
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