CFP expansion stalls as commissioners sort through issues

A plan to expand the College Football Playoff stalled Wednesday when the college sports administrators who oversee the postseason system were unable to reach consensus on whether to grow the postseason format from four to 12 teams.

The 10 major college conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director who make up the CFP management committee met to share feedback from their members and address concerns about the expansion proposal that was unveiled in June.

“There’s still issues that need to be discussed,” CFP Executive

Director Bill Hancock told AP.

Among the issues: the number of teams. Hancock said an eight-team format was part of the discussions Wednesday.

The meeting in the Dallas area, which was attended in person by some of the participants and virtually by others, was prelude to a session in Chicago next week that was supposed to include the CFP board of managers.

The board is comprised of university presidents and chancellors representing each conference. The board has final say in all matters related to the playoff and there was hope the management committee would bring the presidents a recommendation to approve a format change.

Instead, the management committee will reconvene Tuesday, with the presidents joining via Zoom.

“There won’t be a vote next week,” Hancock said. “Next week will be, I’ll call it an informational meeting. It’s complicated.”

Hancock added: “We have time.”

When the process first began, the 2023 season seemed like the soonest an expansion plan could be implemented.

After the latest meeting, Hancock talked about 2024.

“I can’t say what the timetable might be, but I would say if we want to expand beginning in the 2024 season, we have a few months,” he said. “But if we want to change the format beginning in 2026, after the 12-year contract (with ESPN) is over, we have a couple of years.”

Since the public rollout of the 12-team playoff plan, there have been concerns raised about components of the format, including the possibility of increasing the number of games in a season required to play for a championship to as many as 17. There were also questions about the impact subsequent conference realignment could have on a new version of the CFP.