College Football Playoff could expand, meeting set to discuss potential new format: report

The College Football Playoff could be expanding as the university presidents overseeing it will meet Friday to discuss changes to the four-team format, which could be put in place in 2024.

The meeting will occur over video conference, sources told the Associated Press, however, there is no certainty that anything will be voted on during the meeting.

The CFP management committee is made up of 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, but it is the university presidents who have final say on how the format will be.

The management committee is set to meet in Dallas next week.

To make a change to the format, it must be an unanimous decision. Executive director of the CFP, Bill Hancock, said that failed to happen last time expansion talks occurred, which was a 12-team proposal.

The format would’ve been six conference winners and six at-large teams. But concerns over “automatic access for certain conferences” and more were cited as issues, according to the Associated Press report.

The current four-team format is under ESPN’s TV rights through the 2025 college season. Those talks in February were to discuss how the format should be starting in the 2026 season.

Under the current format in 2022, the Georgia Bulldogs took down the Alabama Crimson Tide in the national championship game. Alabama dominated the Cincinnati Bearcats in the semifinal while the Bulldogs defeated No. 2 Michigan to advance to the final game of the college season.