Tired of waiting for the commissioners to make a decision about expanding the College Football Playoff, the 11 presidents and chancellors who comprise the CFP’s board of managers took control on Friday with a unanimous vote to expand the field to 12 teams in 2026.
The presidents have strongly urged the commissioners to try and implement the new format as soon as 2024. The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick will meet next week in Irving, Texas, to start that discussion.
After more than a year of indecision and unproductive in-person meetings, the monumental change to the sport’s postseason happened swiftly — in a one-hour, virtual meeting.
How did they finally come to an agreement? Who benefits the most from the new deal? And what comes next?
Heather Dinich, Adam Rittenberg and Pete Thamel break it all down.
Why are they expanding now?
The root of this expansion, like most things in college sports, comes back to money.
Two weeks ago, when the Board of Managers held an unscheduled call to set up this moment, there was a tone among the presidents on the call that they were leaving too much money on the table. The cost of not expanding for the final two years of the current College Football Playoff contract was an estimated $450 million. And a source told ESPN that leaving so much money on the table was the motivator for re-engaging. It’s certain there’ll be a 12-team playoff after 2026. The next few weeks should determine whether or not they can work out logistics in time to implement it any sooner.
When asked why now, on the Friday of Labor Day weekend and the opening of the college football season, Mississippi State president and CFP board chair Mark Keenum said, “It’s time.”
“It’s time to make a decision,” he said. “We need to give direction to our commissioners. We felt like we needed to give them a definitive, ‘This is where we are. This is where we think college football needs to be headed as far as the playoff is…
Source : espn
