College Football is Starting to Agree on Playoff Expansion Model

As college athletics continues to chase revenues in order to keep athletic departments afloat, there appears to be a coalescing around the idea of expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams. According to Yahoo! Sports, the presidential committee put together by the White House to help college sports navigate the top issues the leagues and universities are facing have agreed on one obvious way to generate more revenue to help financially stressed schools: Expand the playoff to 24 teams.

“I think it’s accurate to say that there is a coalescing around 24,” said one high-placed stakeholder who is part of both the CFP governance committee and the presidential group.

This week in Dallas, members of the College Football Playoff governance committee, which includes the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, meet for their annual spring meetings.

Big 12 Will Get Its Way in the CFP?

According to the report, it also seems like three of the Power 4 conferences, the Big 12, ACC and Big Ten, along with Notre Dame, agree that 24 teams is the way to go, while the SEC appears to be the hold out, preferring a 16-team playoff.

The commissioners seem to be in agreement that moving to a 24-team playoff would generate hundreds of millions in additional dollars, re-shaping the sport’s regular season and postseason, which would help the universities balance their respective budgets.

The presidential media committee does not hold authority over changes to the playoff. That power lies with the Big Ten and SEC, as these two conferences must agree for the new CFP to adopt a new format.

In the meantime, the 12-team playoff will remain, at least for this year.

The format for a 24-team playoff that has received the most attention relies mostly on CFP rankings, includes first-round byes to the top eight teams and plays the first two rounds on campus before the six CFP bowls host quarterfinals and semifinals. The sport would go from 11 Playoff games to 23 total games, with the conference championship games, valued at $150-200 million, to be removed from the sport’s calendar.