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College Football Playoff expansion remains at a stalemate: ‘We have entrenched issues’
By Keith Farner
Published:
College Football Playoff leaders and conference commissioners remain at a stalemate on how to expand the national championship format following meetings in Indianapolis.
Ultimately, CFP commissioners could not reach unanimity, and therefore, there is no decision on expansion.
“We didn’t even get close,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “We have a lot of work to do … I am disappointed … We have entrenched issues.”
It also didn’t appear to reveal that there is any movement in any direction following the summer’s announcement of a 12-team format.
“There are holdouts for 4, there are holdouts for 8, there are holdouts for 12,” Bowlsby said. “It has been a very frustrating process.”
At issue is the path to expand, and how to do it. The 10 conference commissioners that make up the management committee, along with Notre Dame’s athletic director, each support expanding the playoff from 4 teams. How to do it and when is more complicated and has not been agreed to over several meetings.
Unanimous consensus among the management committee members is needed to alter to the current deal.
A proposal for a 12-team playoff has been on the table since June. There was hope initially an agreement could be reached soon enough to have it implemented for the 2024 season, 2 years before the current CFP contract with ESPN expires.
Hancock has said if the commissioners could not come to a consensus on a new format by these meetings, ahead of the Monday’s national title game at Lucas Oil Stadium between No 1 Alabama and No. 3 Georgia, expansion could not happen until after the current 12-year deal is complete.
“I don’t want to characterize anything as out or in, you’re just going to have to stand by,” executive director Bill Hancock said, per the Associated Press.
H/T Pete Thamel and Stewart Mandel.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.