College Football Playoff expansion delayed as officials fail to form consensus over numerous issues

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per Dodd:

If the College Football Playoff does expand, it does not appear as if it will happen anytime soon. The CFP Board of Managers failed Monday to approve a proposal for an expanded 12-team playoff field with Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby saying after the group's scheduled meeting that the managers "didn't even get close" to coming to an agreement.

While the CFP Management Committee (conference commissioners) did make a recommendation Monday to the managers (school presidents) on how to move forward with a 12-team expansion, the committee's proposal was not unanimous, and the managers failed to form a consensus as a means of moving forward.

The hope from some officials was that an expanded playoff could begin as soon as the 2024 season. Instead, it appears more likely the playoff will not expand until its current 12-year television contract with ESPN ends ahead of the 2026 season.

CFP executive director Bill Hancock is "not closing the door" on expansion occurring before that 2026 date; however, he did admit Monday that coming to a consensus among college football's commissioners and school presidents is "getting harder and harder" as the process continues.

www.cbssports.com

College Football Playoff expansion delayed as officials fail to form consensus over numerous issues

In some ways, key playoff stakeholders have never been further apart
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
 

It is about money and that is it. The current system of bowls is more lucrative. The NFL has now saturated the market with football "playoffs" and a longer season. There is that student athlete thing that is still #1 in the minds of university presidents as revenue from research-patents and coalition with industry that is bigger than athletics. Also, with the NIL, portals and the shrinkage of fan base, college football is at a crossroads. We will not see expanded playoffs.
 

An expansion to 8 teams for now is an easy fix. Each P5 conference gets an invite, plus 3 at large. The first round is at the home field of the top four teams and played a week before the current first round games. Everything else remains the same.
 

gopherjay said:
It is about money and that is it. The current system of bowls is more lucrative. The NFL has now saturated the market with football "playoffs" and a longer season. There is that student athlete thing that is still #1 in the minds of university presidents as revenue from research-patents and coalition with industry that is bigger than athletics. Also, with the NIL, portals and the shrinkage of fan base, college football is at a crossroads. We will not see expanded playoffs.
Click to expand...
It’s really not about money. It’s about who gets the money.

the SEC wants 12 with no auto bids so that they can get 4-6 in the playoff yearly
The ACC, Big 12and Pac 12 want specific power 4/5 auto bids
The G5 want either no auto bids or at least 6 auto bids for conference champs

Not sure what the big ten wants. The big ten is probably about the same in any scenario but probably are siding with ACC and Pac 12 over the SEC


the big ten honestly probably wants 8 with 5 auto bids for conference champs.
because that usually is going to mean 5 conference champs, at large SEC, at large Big Ten, and one up for grabs
 

gopherjay said:
It is about money and that is it. The current system of bowls is more lucrative. The NFL has now saturated the market with football "playoffs" and a longer season. There is that student athlete thing that is still #1 in the minds of university presidents as revenue from research-patents and coalition with industry that is bigger than athletics. Also, with the NIL, portals and the shrinkage of fan base, college football is at a crossroads. We will not see expanded playoffs.
Click to expand...

From the article:

If and when the CFP expands, the increase in revenue is expected to be massive with TV rights worth $1 billion per year on the low end. The current deal averages $475 million per year.
 


discochris said:
From the article:

If and when the CFP expands, the increase in revenue is expected to be massive with TV rights worth $1 billion per year on the low end. The current deal averages $475 million per year.
Click to expand...
I don’t know how they can give that projection when they don’t know if it’ll be a 3 game playoff or an 11 game or a 7 game etc

I suppose that is the guess if it is a 3 game
 

Some guy said:
I don’t know how they can give that projection when they don’t know if it’ll be a 3 game playoff or an 11 game or a 7 game etc

I suppose that is the guess if it is a 3 game
Click to expand...
It does say "on the low end" so I'm guessing that would be if it were a 3 game.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
the headline says failure to form consensus over "numerous issues."

and then the article fails to even mention what those numerous issues are, or may be.

In other words, "they haven't agreed yet because they can't agree."

that's informative.
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The worst thing about the media on this issue is that they reported they were close 6 months ago when they were not close

They were in agreement they should have discussions. That doesn’t mean they are close
 



As an aside, NIL will kill startup pro football leagues. What is still floating around is dead now.
 

HitMeAgainIAmStillMoving said:
As an aside, NIL will kill startup pro football leagues. What is still floating around is dead now.
Click to expand...
We already have numerous "The sky is falling" NIL threads, please post in those rather than steering yet another thread off topic.
 

WAGopher said:
An expansion to 8 teams for now is an easy fix. Each P5 conference gets an invite, plus 3 at large. The first round is at the home field of the top four teams and played a week before the current first round games. Everything else remains the same.
Click to expand...
I have thought all along this is where they end up, and it happens when the ESPN contract is up. This is where the Alliance starts to influence it all.
 

PMWinSTP said:
I have thought all along this is where they end up, and it happens when the ESPN contract is up. This is where the Alliance starts to influence it all.
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I think 8

5+1+2 at larges is the likeliest outcome for 2026
 




WAGopher said:
An expansion to 8 teams for now is an easy fix. Each P5 conference gets an invite, plus 3 at large. The first round is at the home field of the top four teams and played a week before the current first round games. Everything else remains the same.
Click to expand...
I'd have the 1st round at higher seed two weeks after conference championships. So this year would have been December 17-18. Then semis around NYD.

One thing I would do as well then as have the 4 teams that lose the first round play in bowl games against each other as well. So you rotate the NY6. So 2 are the semis, 2 are for the teams that lose the 1st round and 2 are for top teams that didn't make it into the playoffs.

Unfortunately I'm guessing all games will be at neutral sites unless it goes up to 12 because southern teams will complain enough.
 


PMWinSTP said:
Yes I agree, 8.
Click to expand...
51pMSUMeySL._SY445_.jpg
 

I saw tweet this morning - can't find it again - but the tweet was from some "insider."

The gist was that one of the issues with the CFP negotiations involves TV rights. Some of the P5 conferences, including the B1G, think that ESPN has too much power in the college FB world and they are pushing for a deal that allows other networks - aka Fox - to be included in the next TV rights deal for the CFP.

So, according to this guy, it is shaping up as a division between the ESPN conferences (SEC) and the Fox conferences (B1G).
 

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...-expansion-amid-concerns-about-larger-issues/

When ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said last week that his coaches were unanimously against College Football Playoff expansion "at this time", he may have been understating the conference's position.

...

ACC coaches and officials believe college athletics -- football in particular -- must work its way through numerous other complications as it tries to reform and deregulate before it sets its sights on expanding the postseason.

Amid COVID-19 issues and roster limitations, the ACC last fall asked the NCAA Football Oversight Committee for relief on the rule that preserves eligibility for any player who participates in less than five games during the regular season. In the postseason, ACC coaches said they were were told to apply for a waiver on individual cases for players whose eligibility would be impacted.

None of those waivers were granted, according to Wake Forest's Dave Clawson, current chairman of the league's head football coaches.

Clawson said some ACC schools are "not sure they are going to be able to practice in the spring" because of rosters diminished by the combination of COVID-19, injuries, graduation, opt outs and transfer portal departures.

The average ACC program has lost 10.4 players to the portal since the beginning of last the 2020 season, according to 247Sports' tracker. It is not known how that compares to other leagues.

ACC coaches are concerned that level of churn is unsustainable with the annual limits of 25 signees in recruiting and 85 total players on scholarship. In 2020, rostered athletes were granted an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19. As such, coaches do not have to strictly adhere to the 85-man limit in 2022; however, they must find a way to pare their rosters back down to 85 ahead of the 2023 season.

"How the hell are we going to get to 85?" said Clawson, who has been named to the American Football Coaches Association board of trustees. "Our rosters are getting thinner and thinner. We have less control over them, and the NCAA isn't giving us any relief.

"What they've done is done a great job of opening up the outflow valve. And they haven't helped us at all with the inflow valve."

Expanding the playoff to 12 teams creates the possibility of at least one team playing 17 games in a single season. That remains a non-starter with ACC coaches because of health and safety concerns. Clemson's Dabo Swinney -- and some of his players -- have been on record since at least last summer as being against expansion of the bracket.

"To be honest with you, I don't think there's 12 teams good enough [to compete for the national championship each year]," Swinney said in July 2021.
 

Another tangentially related article about Big XII expansion and going to divisions. I will put it here instead of creating a new thread.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...divisions-beginning-in-2023-amid-realignment/

One person involved in the process said it would be "easier if we don't reshuffle the deck" in 2026. By placing Texas and Oklahoma in opposite divisions beginning in 2023, that would allow the Big 12 to conceivably stay with the same composition of two six-team divisions moving forward in 2026 without the 'Horns and Sooners.

...

Here's a projection of one way the Big 12 could organize its seven-team divisions in 2023:

Big 12 NorthBig 12 South
CincinnatiBaylor
BYUHouston
Iowa StateTCU
KansasTexas
Kansas StateTexas Tech
OklahomaUCF
Oklahoma StateWest Virginia
 

I wonder if Texas and OU signed any binding contracts with the SEC? What I mean is, I wonder if the next couple years go really well ... maybe they'll change their mind and stay?

On the divisions above, I would swap BYU and WV, but that is purely geographically based.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
I saw tweet this morning - can't find it again - but the tweet was from some "insider."

The gist was that one of the issues with the CFP negotiations involves TV rights. Some of the P5 conferences, including the B1G, think that ESPN has too much power in the college FB world and they are pushing for a deal that allows other networks - aka Fox - to be included in the next TV rights deal for the CFP.

So, according to this guy, it is shaping up as a division between the ESPN conferences (SEC) and the Fox conferences (B1G).
Click to expand...
For sure. And unless ESPN allows it to go to market, expansion is unlikely before the contract runs out
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
This. I'm tired of blowout semifinal games.

How's the NFL playoff expansion working out this season? Just more blowout games...
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One year is not a trend. Many 1-2 seeds not made the super bowl. 6 seeds have won the super bowl.
Also home field advantage in NFL.
In college expanding leads to more blowoutsbut it could also put more pressure on teams in conference play or in additional playoffs.

we all love cheering for underdogs and upsets.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
we all love cheering for underdogs and upsets.
Click to expand...

You and I agree on this, but it seems that a lot of people here and on other boards I frequent, don't like that at all. Hence a lot of the backlash against Cinci making the playoff this year.

I want to see the G5 conference champions in the playoffs for this very reason.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Another tangentially related article about Big XII expansion and going to divisions. I will put it here instead of creating a new thread.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...divisions-beginning-in-2023-amid-realignment/

One person involved in the process said it would be "easier if we don't reshuffle the deck" in 2026. By placing Texas and Oklahoma in opposite divisions beginning in 2023, that would allow the Big 12 to conceivably stay with the same composition of two six-team divisions moving forward in 2026 without the 'Horns and Sooners.

...

Here's a projection of one way the Big 12 could organize its seven-team divisions in 2023:

Big 12 NorthBig 12 South
CincinnatiBaylor
BYUHouston
Iowa StateTCU
KansasTexas
Kansas StateTexas Tech
OklahomaUCF
Oklahoma StateWest Virginia
Click to expand...
Even without Texas and Oklahoma, this is still a better conference than the ACC, and in many years, the Pac 12.
 

discochris said:
Even without Texas and Oklahoma, this is still a better conference than the ACC, and in many years, the Pac 12.
Click to expand...
It is interesting. They should pick that divisional alignment and then not schedule them to play each other
 


MaxyJR1 said:
One year is not a trend. Many 1-2 seeds not made the super bowl. 6 seeds have won the super bowl.
Also home field advantage in NFL.
In college expanding leads to more blowoutsbut it could also put more pressure on teams in conference play or in additional playoffs.

we all love cheering for underdogs and upsets.
Click to expand...

You contradicted yourself by saying 1 year is not a trend, then mentioned a 6 seed winning a Super Bowl, which is extremely rare. The exception is not the rule.

I love cheering for underdogs and upsets as well, but they are rare in football due to the large number of players needed to have a top team. Especially in college football. More playoff teams mean a more watered down regular season. Teams who have multiple losses in the regular season are not going to beat the top teams in college football. I don't need a playoff to tell me that.

Cincinnati was a nice story this year, but they were completely outmatched the second they stepped on the field vs Alabama. Watching the regular season told you that was going to be the case.
 

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