College football tournament expands to 12-team format

The College Football Playoff’s governing council unanimously voted Friday to expand the CFP to 12 teams by 2026 but is encouraging the sport’s commissioners to try to do it by 2024 at the earliest.

The board’s 11 presidents and principals approved the initial 12-team model, which includes the six highest-ranked and six-biggest congress champions, the board announced on Friday.

“This is a historic and exciting day for college football,” Mark Keenum, Mississippi state president and CFP board chair, said in a statement. “More teams, more participants and more excitement are good things for our fans, alumni and student-athletes. I am grateful to my colleagues on the board. because of their thoughtful approach to this matter and their determination to broaden the scope of their goals and to the broad work of the Management Committee that made this decision.”

Teams’ rankings will continue to be determined by the CFP selection committee, which will remain largely unchanged.

The four highest ranked grand slam champions will be ranked one through four and each will be bid farewell in the first round. The 5th through 12th seeded teams will play each other in the first round at the end of the second or third week of December. Quarterfinals and semi-finals will be played alternately in a bowl and title game format. The championship will take place on neutral ground, according to the current four-team format.

The original 12-team model was combined with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Swarbrick, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson and former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. It was made public in June 2021 but has been bogged down by conference politics. In February, CFP announced that they would not be extending their current contract, which expires after the 2025 season.

The main support is specific opposition from the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12. But after the thunderbolt of realignment this summer with USC and UCLA committing to the Big Ten and the conference signing a historic television deal, issues from those leagues began to fade.

Two weeks ago, the CFP board held an unannounced call, discussing the expansion and the possibility of starting a 12-team play-off in light of the structure of the current contract. That showed on Friday afternoon, a landmark day in the sport, at the end of the official start of Saturday’s football season.

“Pac-12 strongly supports the expansion of CFP and welcomes the decision of the CFP Board of Directors,” Pac-12 said in a statement Friday. “The expansion of CFP will increase accessibility and excitement and is a great fit for our student-athletes and fans alike. We look forward to partnering with our fellow conferences. us to perfect the key elements of an expanded CFP to launch as soon as possible.”

It could take weeks or months to figure out the possibility of a 12-team play-off in 2024 or 2025. While CFP officials have set obstacles to such a sudden move – location, hotel and TV deals – money can hover as a powerful motivator for change.