Expansion of CFP could be in ‘jeopardy’

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby says expanding the College Football Playoff as soon as the 2024 season is “in some jeopardy” if an agreement on a new format cannot be reached soon.

Speaking Saturday to reporters before the Big 12 championship game between No. 5 Oklahoma State and No. 9 Baylor, Bowlsby said expansion talks have slowed to the point where the chances of implementing a new format before the current 12-year agreement ends after the 2025 season are waning.

The CFP management committee, comprised of 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, met early this week and in Dallas and could still not reach consensus on a a proposal to expand the playoff from four to 12 teams.

“Well, just for purely logistical reasons year 11 (2024) is probably in some jeopardy at this point, just because there’s good and appropriate things you have to do in order to host the games,” Bowlsby said.

“I think it’s also a possibility that we wouldn’t be able to do it for year 12 (2025) and we’ll be talking about what do we do in year 13 and beyond because you know, for all intents and purposes, the CFP goes away (after 2025). There is no operating agreement beyond 2025-26 and there are no contracts that bind us beyond ’25-26,” he said.

Currently, it takes consensus of all 11 members of the management committee to move forward on a playoff proposal that would still need approval from the university presidents and chancellors who oversee the CFP.

The next scheduled meeting of the commissioners and the presidents is around the national championship game in Indianapolis on Jan. 10, but the commissioners could convene again sooner.

Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff said Friday night before his league’s title game in Las Vegas that the group was starting to look beyond the current agreement and at the possibility the next iteration of the playoff would not need approval from the so-called Group of Five conferences.

“I don’t think we need 11 people to say yes to get to a solution that would be good for college football. If we find that solution, then we can focus on whether or not we can also get to that solution for ’24 and ’25,” Kliavkoff said.

“I think you start by saying, ‘What is the group that needs to agree on a model?’ We can then hopefully invite the rest to join us in. So it’s just a different paradigm about how you think about who gets to make a decision about what the model looks like.”

Huskies win MAC title: Quarterback Rocky Lombardi ran for three touchdowns and Jay Ducker ran for 146 yards on 29 carries to power Northern Illinois to a 41-23 victory over Kent State in the Mid-American Conference title game on Saturday.

It is the Huskies’ (9-4) sixth MAC title in the last 11 years and first since 2018 when it beat Buffalo. Kent State (7-6) was shooting for its first conference championship since winning it in 1972.

“This is historic,” said Huskies coach Thomas Hammock whose team was predicted to finish in last place this year after going 0-6 in 2020. “I don’t think any team has gone winless the year before and won a championship.

“When everybody said we would finish last, all I told our team was we are the best team in the MAC until proven otherwise. Obviously, they didn’t prove us otherwise.”

Momentum appeared to be shifting to the Golden Flashes at the start of the second half. Andrew Glass kicked a 41-yard field goal on the opening drive for their first points of the game and the Kent State defense forced Northern Illinois to punt for the first time.

But on the next drive Dustin Crum, the MAC’s most valuable player this season, was intercepted by C.J. Brown who returned it 26 yards for a touchdown as the Huskies went ahead 24-3.

“I saw it tipped and I went up and had to make a play,” said Brown who was named the defensive player of the game. “I felt like that was a game-changing play when we needed it.”

The Golden Flashes cut the deficit to 24-10 with 27 seconds left in the third quarter when Crum hit Nykeim Johnson on a 17-yard scoring strike.

The Huskies ended Kent State’s comeback hopes when Lombardi scored on a 3-yard keeper with 10:54 left making it 31-10. He added a 2-yard TD run nearly four minutes later.

Presbyterian’s no-punt coach Kelley

resigns: Presbyterian coach Kevin Kelley, known for not punting, has resigned after going 2-9 in his first season coaching college football.

Kelley left for personal reasons, the school said in a statement. He was hired last April and gained attention for his unorthodox strategy that included onside kicks after made scores and not punting on fourth down.

Kelley’s team punted 13 times in 11 games this season.