CFP director Rich Clark: Roger Goodell committed to NFL collaboration in future scheduling

For football fans who were disappointed with the First Round of the College Football Playoff and the NFL intersecting this past December, Rich Clark and Roger Goodell are on the case.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the CFP Director and the NFL Commissioner have spoken about the overlapping schedule, and Goodell is “committed” to working with the expanded Playoff in the future on scheduling. That’s music to the ears of fans everywhere.

“CFP director Rich Clark says he visited with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about the CFP/NFL overlapping schedule and Goodell says he’s ‘committed’ to working with CFP in the future on scheduling,” Dellenger noted on Saturday, via X.

That’s tremendous news for the CFP, as well as the NFL. The two cannibalized each other by going head to head on Dec. 21 — the Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs took place at the same time as SMU at Penn State, while the Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens overlapped with Clemson at Texas.

Now, the reason for the NFL playing during the First Round of the CFP had to do with the four aforementioned franchises also playing Christmas Day, which fell on the following Wednesday. It was an effort to give them enough time to rest and recuperate before the holiday showdown, so there wasn’t any other option but to play on Saturday.

Moving forward, Christmas Day won’t fall on a Wednesday in 2025, so the CFP should feasibly have that Saturday all to themselves next year. That would help make the First Round showdowns feel even more special, after they were a fascinating success in 2024, even if the games weren’t exactly close.

The NFL doesn’t take any prisoners when it comes to ratings, and the NBA has found that out the hard way throughout the last two years, as Christmas Day has been taken over by football, and they’re not going gently into that good night. It’s certainly smart of Clark and the CFP decision makers as a whole to work with the professional league.

All told, the expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff had some quirks, but it was a success during its first iteration, even if some would like to see certain changes made moving forward. The college football season will come to a close on Monday, as Ohio State or Notre Dame will be crowned.