Dabo Swinney said he was alerted to the expansion of the College Football Playoff right before his team took the practice field Friday, though Clemson’s coach was hardly surprised by the news.

“Hey, bring it on. Let’s go,” Swinney said. “I think we all knew this was coming. Tell us what the rules are, and let’s go play. We’ll be ready.”

Earlier in the day, the CFP’s Board of Managers unanimously voted to expand the playoff to 12 teams, tripling the four-team field that’s been in place since the playoff’s inception in 2014. The new format, which is currently set to go into effect beginning with the 2026 season, will include the six highest-ranked conference champions with the next six highest-ranked at-large teams making up the rest of the field.

Swinney acknowledged having more teams involved could help the ACC’s chances of getting more teams in, though Clemson hasn’t had much trouble making the playoff under the current model. Last season snapped the Tigers’ streak of six consecutive CFP appearances.

All of those appearances came after Clemson won the ACC championship, though the new format makes it possible for some teams that don’t win their respective leagues to get a crack at the national title.

“If we want playoff football in college football, then certainly going from four to 12 just mathematically gives everyone more opportunity,” Swinney said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that.”

Swinney has largely been opposed to playoff expansion, which was initially examined last summer when a CFP working group proposed the idea of a 12-team model for the first time. Swinney not only has voiced concern about how a longer season might impact player safety but also the luster that he believes at least part of the regular season may lose with an expanded field.

Swinney compared the expansion to the NFL in terms of how some teams that know they’re playoff-bound may approach games late in the season.

“If you know you’re in the playoffs and you’ve got one more game at the end of the year, it’s just like the NFL,” Swinney said. “They don’t play a lot of those guys because you’ve got the playoffs the next week. It’s all about the playoffs. So you’re just trying to find a way to do well enough to get in the tournament and then you try to go win the tournament. It’s just a different mindset.

“Every game was live or die, and I think it will definitely change a lot of that.”

Ultimately, though, Swinney said that’s not the primary concern for him. Getting his team back in position to be part of the playoff again is.

“People can debate forever what’s good or bad. That doesn’t matter,” Swinney said. “There’s a lot of fans, that’s what they want. And it’s being driven by where the game is, so tell us the rules and let’s go play.”

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