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ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — The commissioners of the conference that governs college football met for nearly seven hours Tuesday to work on expanding the postseason system from four to 12 teams as of the 2024 season.
There is still much work to be done.
“We’re not going to finish it this week,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said.
The CFP Management Committee, which consists of 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, is scheduled to meet again at the Big Ten offices for a few hours Wednesday morning. They are set to meet again in person on October 20 in Dallas.
“That’s going to be important,” Hancock said.
In the past month, expansion talks have been fueled by university presidents and chancellors who oversee the college football game.
By endorsing the 12-team plan that has been on the table since the spring of 2021, the presidents pushed the commissioners to try to implement a new format before the CFP’s current term expires. That deal expires after the 2025 season.
Expanding from four to 12 in 2024 and 25 would require rescheduling the semifinals and championship games to earlier dates and sites, and adding four new first-round games to campus sites in mid-December.
It’s going to be a challenge to squeeze it all into one month and work around the NFL for television.
Hancock said the idea of moving the start of the college football season a week to Labor Day has been discussed to create more classes at the end of the game, but beyond the 2025 season.
“I think a lot of people see that as the stuff of the future. As a long-term item, not an immediate item,” Hancock said. “Remember, there are so many details.”
Hancock said CFP officials have been in talks with league partners and host cities set to host semifinals and championship games after the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but no new exact dates have been provided.
Atlanta has been selected as the host city for the championship game on January 6, 2025. If the playoffs were to expand from four teams to 12, the games would have to be pushed back by two weeks.
“(Atlanta developers) have some jobs because of other businesses in the community,” Hancock said. “Other convention-type business, hotel business and convention center business there. They were great to work with.”
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