CFP Leaders Delay Decisions on Playoff Format Changes

DALLAS — Conference commissioners involved in the College Football Playoff (CFP) gathered on Tuesday to discuss potential modifications for the next season, with a particular focus on how the 12-team tournament might be seeded.

The CFP Management Committee, made up of all 10 FBS commissioners along with Notre Dame’s athletic director Pete Bevacqua, emphasized the need to gather more data before making any substantial changes. “We had a really good discussion,” remarked Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, underlining the productive exchange of viewpoints alongside plans to thoroughly examine the insights gained.

The committee is planning to reconvene in March, possibly through a virtual session, to better evaluate seeding models and additional data. Another in-person meeting is set for April in North Texas.

Any proposed modifications to the playoff system or its format for the 2025 season, the last year under the current CFP agreement, would necessitate a unanimous vote for approval.

Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP, noted that a significant portion of Tuesday’s seven-hour meeting, held at a hotel near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, revolved around evaluating the recent season’s playoff. It marked the first edition under the expanded 12-team format. Clark added that while there were discussions around next season’s setup, no formal talks regarding post-2025 formats took place, despite the looming new ESPN contract stretching to 2031.

“It’s imperative that we make these decisions for 2025 now, as they’ll shape what follows in 2026 and beyond,” Clark stated. He highlighted the importance of viewing the entire framework collectively.

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips noted, “Yes, it’s one contract coming to an end and a new set of a six-year cycle begins. But those things have some linkage to them as well.” The broader influence on the playoff’s future landscape with the new contract will largely come from the SEC and Big Ten.

This meeting marked the commissioners’ first full in-person discussion regarding prospective changes. It followed a recent meeting between SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti with their athletic directors, after which both prominently supported altering the seeding approach.

Commissioners like Sankey and Petitti departed Tuesday’s session without engaging with reporters. Meanwhile, American Athletic Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti found the discussions “really productive,” with valuable insights from various contributors.

Much of the discussion centered on how previous playoff scenarios played out and how they might appear under straightforward seeding. The previous year’s format ensured the top four seeds, with accompanying first-round byes, would go to the top four ranked conference champions. This could result in differences between the seeding and the CFP’s final rankings—a point that certainly sparked debate.

In the earlier playoff, after Big Ten’s Oregon and the SEC’s Georgia garnered the top two seeds, ninth-ranked Boise State from the Mountain West secured the third seed, and twelfth-ranked Arizona State from the Big 12 claimed the fourth. Despite their top seeds, they faltered in the New Year’s Six matchups against teams like Texas and Penn State, which played home games in the first round.

Ultimately, the 12-team field comprised four from the Big Ten, three from the SEC, and two from the ACC. A straightforward seeding might have shifted the dynamics and byes by requiring Boise State and Arizona State to participate in first-round games. However, this would not have altered the makeup of the playoff teams, which included five conference champions as automatic qualifiers plus seven at-large selections.