The College Football Playoff will expand from a four-team bracket to a 12-team bracket by 2026 at the latest. But those who run it are try to expand sooner so the 12-team tournament can be implemented in time for the 2024 regular season. This process was more complicated than it seems.
This is a crucial time for the commissioners and chairs who oversee the CFP. To make rapid expansion a reality, they need to resolve all major and minor issues in a short time, sources said. Athleticism a decision must be made by the second half of this week. The presidents and chancellors who make up the CFP board met Monday morning to be briefed on the Rose Bowl’s latest proposal regarding its role in the 12-team format, and their conversations are continuing, sources close to the discussions. Athleticism. PSC officials hope to have a final decision on an anticipated expansion by Wednesday, because they can only keep hotel blocks and sites in limbo for so long.
They figured out how the schedule will work for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, when games will be played and how to make the complicated logistics of on-campus games work. They also decided how distribute income fairly among Power 5 schools for these two seasons. But there are a few final boxes to check.
In early September, the board approved the 12-team model initially proposed by a four-person subcommittee in June 2021. That subcommittee included SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, the Big 12 commissioner of the era Bob Bowlsby, then-Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson and our Lady athletic director Jack Swarbrick. The model includes spots for the six highest-ranked FBS conference champions and the six highest-ranked at-large selections. The top four seeds will receive a first-round bye, and seeds 5-8 will host home games in the first round. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and the national championship will be played on the pétanque sites.
When the board unanimously approved the 12-team field in September, it did so after commissioners spent nearly eight months meeting to resolve early expansion issues, but failed to do so. . They officially submitted the idea in February after failing to gain unanimous support. When the chairs revisited the topic over the summer and found unanimity, they essentially overrode the commissioners to reach the finish line. They also tasked the commissioners with determining whether an expansion could take place for the 2024 season.
Here’s what you need to know about the current situation.
Rose Bowl Reluctance
The Rose Bowl is seeking assurance from CFP management that its game will continue to be played at 5 p.m. ET on New Year’s Day in an exclusive broadcast window. He wants that valuable time slot even in years when the Rose Bowl is not a CFP quarterfinal game, which would upend the schedule and operation of the new playoffs. This insurance would also represent special treatment that no other bowl receives.
If the CFP does not accept the Rose Bowl, it could refuse to terminate its current contract, which runs until the 2025-26 season. This would end any hopes of early expansion.
“The Rose Bowl Game continues to be open to the possibility of rapid expansion of the existing playoffs. Although we requested specific contractual assurances during our initial discussions with the College Football Playoff, we remain open to these discussions,” game organizers said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We do not intend to be the only obstacle that prevents the expansion from occurring before the end of its current cycle. »
“As the only New Year’s Six Bowl with an independent contract, we are working to honor our existing agreement,” Laura Farber, chairwoman of the Rose Bowl Management Committee, told ESPN earlier this month. “While we are willing to work in some areas, we have maintained that an exclusive broadcast window on January 1 at 2 p.m. PT is important for the Rose Bowl game.”
Where has there been progress?
Earlier this month, the CFP board was able to determine how revenue related to the 12-team playoffs would be distributed over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. A source with knowledge of the board meeting said that the model agreed to by the Board would make payments more uniform by Power 5 school.
As it stands, each Power 5 league earns roughly the same payout each year, regardless of how many teams it sends to the CFP or how far they progress. This has created some friction, particularly for schools in leagues that are increasing in size. The compromise will shift the focus from per-league payments to per-school payments. Payouts to Group of 5 leagues will remain unchanged.
The new deal would only be in effect for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. The CFP will sign a brand new contract for 2026 and beyond, at which point most expect several other issues to come back to the table. The expanding SEC and Big Ten are expected to push for a payment formula similar to that of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, in which leagues receive payments proportional to the number of teams they field in the field.
Commissioners have worked on other issues in recent months, from scheduling to the logistical challenges of on-campus games. They worked with campus leaders to identify the most challenging aspects of hosting on-campus games on short notice, from hotel availability to winter opening ceremonies to campus locations. which may be closed during the winter holidays. It will be difficult but doable – and prominent sports directors are already calling for more matches beyond the first round will be played on campus.
The commissioners also settled general scheduling issues. In the future, they could propose moving the entire college football season forward a week to begin a full schedule the weekend before Labor Day, a period currently commonly referred to as Week 0. Moving the season forward so that Conference championship games being played on the weekend after Thanksgiving would alleviate some of the pressure on the back end of the schedule, as playoff games are likely to stretch more into a second half and create greater overlap with the NFL. But CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said some issues are long-term issues for a new CFP contract, which begins in 2026 — and the Week 0 topic is one of them.
If the CFP expands for 2024 and 2025, it will do so with a season starting in Week 1, which could put first-round playoff games in conflict with NFL Saturday action in December. While it’s not an ideal situation, the CFP leadership is prepared to take on NFL regular season games to play when they need to. It is likely that the first round games will be played two weeks after the conference championship games, on Fridays and Saturdays. The quarterfinals would be played around New Year’s Day, the semifinals a week later and the national championship after that.
All of these tentative plans would have to be adjusted if the entire season were to move forward a week. CFP executives said they believe everything will be on the table again (from revenue sharing to the schedule and perhaps even the venue of the quarterfinal matches) when they begin negotiations for the new contract that will begin in 2026.
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