Throughout the college football season, there’s been accelerated talk about expanding the current four-team playoff structure. As early as September, the College Football Playoff Committee announced that the playoff structure would expand to 12 teams โ eventually.
The next question was: how soon? The committee initially hoped for a goal of 2026 but wanted to move to the new format earlier if they could get away with it.
And now it’s official: the College Football Playoff Committee announced a move to a 12-team playoff structure starting with the 2024-25 season.
๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ก๐ข๐จ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ง: The College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams beginning in the 2024-25 season!
Details ยป https://t.co/O4ZiAOQ4HZ#CFBPlayoff ๐๐ pic.twitter.com/5ZTVGXTZbo
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) December 1, 2022
“We’re delighted to be moving forward,” College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock said. “When the board expanded the playoff beginning in 2026 and asked the CFP Management Committee to examine the feasibility of starting the new format earlier, the Management Committee went right to work. More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students, and student-athletes.”
“We appreciate the leaders of the six bowl games and the two future national championship game host cities for their cooperation,” Hancock added. “Everyone realized that this change is in the best interest of college football and pulled together to make it happen.”
The new format adds a quarterfinal layer to the playoff picture. The top four teams will receive byes in the quarterfinal round, while the teams in seats five through 12 will battle it out for a spot in the semifinals. At least in the first two years, the quarterfinal and semifinal games will rotate among existing bowl games. The 2024-25 championship game will take place in Atlanta, while Miami will host the 2025-26 championship.
“The first round of the playoff in 2024, featuring matchups between all but the top four seeds (No. 12 at No. 5, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7, No. 9 at No. 8), will take place the week ending Saturday, Dec. 21, with games at either the home field of the higher-seeded team or at another site designated by the higher-seeded team,” reports The Athletic.
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While some wags have mused that the acceleration of the expanded playoff timeline has something to do with the absence of perennial media favorites Alabama and Ohio State among this year’s top four โ and I won’t necessarily argue otherwise โ the catalyst for this week’s announcement is the Rose Bowl finally relenting and going along.
A source told ESPN’s Heather Dinich earlier this week that the Rose Bowl was essentially given an ultimatum this week to agree to terms or risk being shut out of the next television contract, which begins in 2026.
The Rose Bowl’s requests for special treatment included an exclusive window for the game — a television window considered one of the most valuable in sports — in years when the Rose Bowl wasn’t hosting a College Football Playoff game on New Year’s.
Essentially, sources told ESPN that CFP officials told Rose Bowl officials this week that they’d make good-faith efforts to work with them, but if the Rose Bowl wanted to take part in the next version of the CFP, it needed to accept a role that didn’t include significant special favors.
“This is a great day for college football,” Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State University and chairman of the CFP Board of Managers, said. “I’m glad we are able to follow through and launch the expanded playoff early. It’s very exciting for schools, alumni, and everyone involved.”
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