CFB insider says College Football Playoff expansion announcement likely to follow Rose Bowl decision

A decision from the Rose Bowl on whether to amend the contract between the bowl game and the College Football Playoff — and thus clear the way for the CFP to expand to 12 teams for the 2024 season — or not is expected as soon as Wednesday evening according to Sport Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger and an announcement would likely follow soon after.

Speaking on the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday, Dellenger said that a decision from the Rose Bowl was expected to come in by the end of the business day in the Pacific time zone. And when the decision from the Rose Bowl gets to the expansion committee there will be no more questions to answer and an announcement on College Football Playoff expansion can finally come. Based on the way Dellenger and Finebaum discussed the machinations, it seems an announcement could be coming in weeks, if not days.

“I think the answer from the Rose Bowl is expected today, by the end of the day — maybe the end of their day, which obviously would be 8 o’clock eastern, 5 o’clock pacific. I guess there’s not really a drop-dead time, but they’re expecting at some point today to get some kind of determination or decision from the Rose Bowl,” Dellenger said. “And if they’re in, then I think you’ll see an announcement that the playoff will expand in 2024. If they’re out, welp, there’s no early expansion and we expand in ’26.”

Finebaum was quick to point out how unpopular it would be for the Rose Bowl to remain an obstacle to College Football Playoff expansion.

“And the hate for the Rose Bowl goes to DEFCON 1,” Finebaum said about the scenario where expansion gets shelved.

Dellenger didn’t have specific intel on what decision the Rose Bowl was leaning toward. But he did argue that, from where he sits, it doesn’t seem to make sense for the Rose Bowl to keep being a problem in regard to College Football Playoff expansion.

“It’s pretty up in the air, but I will say this: It’s hard for me to see the Rose Bowl being OK with their legacy being just absolutely tarnished for holding up expansion by two years. They’d cost college football $450 million in additional revenue that would come from expansion in 2024 and 2025. It would cost 16 playoff spots, Paul. And I would cost itself, probably, inclusion in the next iteration of the playoff, starting in 2026. And it would cost it’s long-time partner opportunities — the Pac 12, who needs the expansion more than anybody. It just doesn’t make sense. So, I would lean toward them deciding to expand early and amend the contract,” Dellenger said. “But, I don’t know.” 

What is clear, though, is that until the decision is made, early College Football Playoff expansion hinges on what the Rose Bowl decides.

“Expansion is in their hands,” Dellenger said. “They can amend the contract and we can expand in 2024 or they can decide not to amend the contract, we’ll expand in 2026 and probably won’t include the Rose Bowl.”