College Football Playoff insider talks latest timeline for expansion

On the eve of the College Football Playoff national championship, commissioners and athletic directors met once again in Indianapolis with one goal in mind: expanding the four-team playoff field.

That goal has been consistent in meetings since before the 2021 season, when the committee proposed — and went so far as to release — plans for a potential 12-team playoff field. Fans felt like it was almost a guarantee that the College Football Playoff field expands before the 2024 season; fast forward to now, however, and those hopes seem all but dead. Expansion, at least in the near future, seems like a longshot. As conference commissioners and other college football power players attempt to rework a structure for future College Football Playoff fields, ESPN’s Heather Dinich joined The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss the ongoing matter.

“Well there have been a handful, a minority of commissioners who have told me, ‘look, it’s still possible that this can happen as early as 2024 or for the 2025 season.’ There are more people I’ve spoken to who are very doubtful and less optimistic,” Dinich said. “To me, just based on these conversations that I’ve had to this point — and again, that’s knowing that anything can change between now and their next meeting — my best guess is that college football fans see a 12-team Playoff starting in Year 13 (of the College Football Playoff era), which would be 2026.”

Many commissioners, like Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12, have gone on record saying that any form of 12-team, expanded playoff field is something that the Big 12 would favor — and support — in a voting process. Others like George Kliavkoff of the Pac-12 expressed support for that memo. But still, many are pointing fingers at the SEC’s Greg Sankey, who believes the criticism is unwarranted, given that the SEC doesn’t need an expanded format but is still willing to compromise for the best interests of the sport.

“Whether or not there are automatic qualifiers, I would be surprised, honestly. Because the format that was proposed was 12 teams — the six highest-ranked conference champions, and then the next six-ranked champions. It’s interesting to me because they just announced new selection committee members, and my first thought was, ‘Huh, I wonder if they’ll be picking 12 teams for the Playoff or four teams.'”

Bob Bowlsby reveals preferred College Football Playoff expansion format

While many pointed fingers at SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who deflected blame and explained how the SEC has been willing to compromise on a format, Bowlsby took a slightly different route. In a recent appearance on Sirius XM, Bowlsby explained which format the Big 12 is pushing for specifically and why.

“I continue to believe that the 12-team model is the right model,” Bowlsby said. “I don’t think eight (teams) goes far enough and I think there are others who believe that way as well.

“There’s great debate as to whether or not there ought to be an automatic qualification regardless of record or rank for each of the autonomy conferences,” Bowlsby said, expounding on the current expansion conundrum. “That would be a perfectly fine thing for the Big 12. I continue to believe that the sixth-highest ranked conference champions ought to be the ones that get the initial berths in the playoff. I think that’s sort of an eat-what-you-kill environment. I do think that the plan that came out in June was well received, and even among media pundits I think it received very little in the way of legitimate critcism.”

Bowlsby explained that he believes the 12-team model is best for the future of the College Football Playoff, and he thinks its in the Big 12’s best interests to push towards a 12-team model. The 12-team proposal he mentioned, the one proposed earlier last year, included the four highest-ranked conference champions, seeded one through four, with each receiving a first-round bye; meanwhile, teams five through 12 would play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-ranked team (home fields have never been used in the College Football Playoff era).

“I admit to some frustration, but I don’t have the luxury of remaining frustrated. We have to get back to the table and try and figure this out. You know, the irony of all of this is that 18 months from now, we’re going to be up against a hard time deadline because we’re going to get to year 12 (of the College Football Playoff) and there isn’t a playoff (agreement in place) past year 12,” Bowlsby said. “We will end up with an expanded playoff, I don’t think there’s any question about it. We are at the point now where it’s questionable whether or not we can get it done in years 11 and 12 of the current agreement because we’re just running out of time to put the logistics in place.”