CFP format set: 5 conference champs, 7 others
The field for the 12-team College Football Playoff beginning next season will comprise five conference champions and seven at-large selections after the university presidents who oversee the CFP voted unanimously Tuesday to tweak the format.
The move to decrease the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five was prompted by realignment and the disassembling of the Pac-12.
The original plan for the 12team format was to have the six highest-ranked conference champions, with the top four receiving first-round byes, and six at-large selections. But with one fewer socalled power conference after the Pac-12's demise, the commissioners who manage the CFP recommended the change from the 6-6 format to 5-7.
No conference will have automatic access. Those five slots will go to the highest-ranked conference champs as determined by the CFP selection committee, ensuring at least one team from outside the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference will make the 12-team field.
The selection committee's rankings also will determine the seven at-large bids. There will be no limit to how many teams can come from the same league.
“It basically confirms the spirit of the original 6-6, and that was done when you had five A5 conferences,” American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said Tuesday.
“To have a fifth (champion) is good, and it's not a four-plus-one, which is good. It's the best five . ... It's a merit-based system.”
The coming season will be the first with a 12-team playoff after 10 years of it being a four-team event.
“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” said Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State and chairman of the CFP Board of Managers.
During the decade of four-team playoffs, the only team from outside a power conference to make the final four was Cincinnati after being 13-0 following the American championship game in 2021. The Bearcats, now in the Big 12, lost to Alabama in their semifinal at the Cotton Bowl.
While the four highest-ranked conference champions will get a first-round bye in the new format, teams seeded fifth through 12th will open the postseason on the home field of the higher-ranked team — No. 5 vs. No. 12; No. 6 vs. No. 11; No. 7 vs. No. 10; and No. 8 vs. No. 9. The first of those four games will be on Dec. 20, a Friday night, with the remaining firstround contests played the next day.
New Year's Six bowl games will host the quarterfinals and semifinal playoff games. The first quarterfinal game next season will be New Year's Eve in the Fiesta Bowl, followed on New Year's Day by the Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. The semifinal sites will be the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9, and the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10.
The national championship will remain at a neutral site, with next season's title game Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
• Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer hired Nick Sheridan as offensive coordinator and JaMarcus Shephard as co-offensive coordinator.
Sabalenka falls to old foe
Aryna Sabalenka lost her first match since successfully defending her Australian Open title when she was overhauled by an old foe at the Dubai (UAE) Championships.
The No. 2-ranked Sabalenka blew a set and 2-0 lead as Donna Vekic of Croatia rallied to win 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0 in the second round.
No. 1 Iga Swiatek lost her serve three times in the first set before coming right and beating Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-4.
Coco Gauff, the No. 3, defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy 6-1, 7-5. No. 4 Elena Rybakina avoided an upset when Victoria Azarenka retired in distress. Azarenka won the first set 6-4 but lost the second 6-2 in increasing pain.
Sabalenka and Vekic go back eight years on the tour, and Vekic dominated the early matchups. But Sabalenka made the Grand Slam breakthrough when she beat Vekic in the Australian quarterfinals a year ago en route to her first major title.
Also, Wimbledon champion and No. 7 seed Marketa Vondrousova defeated Peyton Stearns 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 for the third time in eight months.
No. 6 Zheng Qinwen, No. 8 Maria Sakkari and former champions Jelena Ostapenko and Elina Svitolina also advanced to the last 16. Svitolina has Swiatek next. Svitolina won their last meeting in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
• Karolina Muchova, last year's runner-up at the French Open, had an operation on her right wrist for an injury that has sidelined her since September. The 27-year-old from the Czech Republic is ranked 10th.
• Two-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz retired hurt from the Rio Open after two games due to a right ankle injury.
Patriots' Slater retires
For more than a decade, Matthew Slater was universally celebrated as being the emotional centerpiece of the New England Patriots locker room, building a resume as one of the league's most-decorated special teams players.
After 16 NFL seasons, he says it's time to call it a career.
Slater announced his retirement in a letter, saying he had “given all that I possibly can to respect and honor the game.”
A fifth-round draft pick out of UCLA by New England in 2008 and son of Hall of Famer Jackie Slater, he was the embodiment of Bill Belichick's “Patriot Way,” team-first culture.
Along the way Slater was voted as the special teams captain 13 times while winning three Super Bowl rings, earning 10 Pro Bowl selections and two All-Pro honors.