Growing playoff to 12 to be discussed this week
The College Football Playoff management committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the feedback members have received from campuses since a 12-team expansion plan was unveiled in June.
After the 10 major college football conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director get together this week, they plan to reconvene early next week in Chicago with the university presidents who make up the CFP’s board of managers.
“As you know, we spent the summer talking to our constituents and anybody that had a dog in the the fight, trying to take their temperature and determine the feasibility of moving forward with what has been recommended. And probably not only the feasibility but the desirability,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday.
Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled to be held in North Texas, though some of the participants may join remotely.
Bowlsby was part of a four-person subcommittee that worked on expansion models for about two years. What those four designed was a 12-team format that would include six conference champions and six at-large teams and games played both on campus and at bowl sites. That recommendation was presented to the full management committee and then the presidents in June.
The proposal was met mostly with enthusiasm and praise from the conference commissioners, some of whom publicly have called for the playoff to grow from its four-team format.
But after it was announced in July that Texas and Oklahoma would be moving from the Big 12 to the SEC by 2025, leaders in other conferences seemed to take a step back and reconsider the next evolution of the CFP.
Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff stated his support for playoff expansion on the day he was hired in May. That has not changed, but he has said there are “issues at the margins” with the proposed 12-team model.
The soonest a new CFP format could be implemented is 2023, and the current 12-year television contract with ESPN runs through the 2025 season.
Bowlsby continues to call expansion “inevitable.”
More clarity on how much and how soon could be realized over the coming eight days, with the presidents making the call.
Oct. 2 game times: The Pac-12 announced kickoff times for its Oct. 2 games. Stanford will host No. 3 Oregon at 12:30 p.m. in a game carried by ABC. At Memorial Stadium, Cal will take on Washington State in game that begins at 2:30 p.m. and will be carried by Pac-12 Network.
Cougars’ QB: Washington State’s quarterback situation remains unsettled as the Cougars prepare to play at Utah on Saturday.
Starter Jayden de Laura helped the Cougars take a
14-0 lead over USC on Saturday, but he was injured late in the first half. If de Laura can’t play, Tennessee graduate transfer Jarrett Guarantano should be ready to go, head coach Nick Rolovich said.