College Football Playoff will 'evaluate' 12-team format in January

The College Football Playoff will “evaluate” every aspect of the 12-team bracket in January after the national championship, executive director Rich Clark told On3 on Friday.

The new executive director officially took over his new role with the CFP in June after finishing the academic year as Superintendent for the U.S Air Force Academy. But during that time, the lieutenant general attended selection and management committee meetings. He’s also visited Atlanta and Miami, which will host the next two national title games.

Now taking over for Bill Hancock, he’s left with lofty questions about the College Football Playoff’s future. The bracket will expand from four to 12 teams these next two seasons, with the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids making the field. The current TV contract with ESPN expires after the 2025 season.

The CFP and ESPN agreed on a six-year, $7.8 billion deal in March through the 2031-32 season. But the playoff format remains unknown with an understanding the bracket will at least include 12 teams.

“At the end of the season, after it’s all said and done after the championship game, we’re going to look back,” Clark said Friday. “Not just at how many teams were in it, but every aspect of the 12-team plan because it’s the first time. I’m not calling this a test run because this is the run, and we have to get it right. But we need to look back and evaluate and see what changes we might make.”

These discussions will start in January, he said. The College Football Playoff management committee, made up of 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, will meet in September. The committee’s annual meeting is set for the national championship game in January.

With a deadline of December 2025, Clark plans to have a decision before that date. The management committee also meets in April.

“We’ll start them in January,” Clark said. “I will say for us, the deadline is December 2025. We’re going to try to make a decision well before that because after we see the 12-team playoff, we can start thinking about what changes need to be made. So I’m hoping by springtime, we’ve evaluated, we’ve decided what changes need to be made and we start implementing those changes early. That’s the expectation.”

CFP working with 134 FBS schools on first-round locations

Self-described as a college football fan for his entire life, Clark said thinking about the CFP daily is not a burden. But with college sports amid change, the new executive director admitted he’s had to learn a lot on the fly.

The House v. NCAA settlement agreed on in May will pay $2.77 billion in back damages to athletes over 10 years. The second piece of the settlement is revenue sharing, allowing institutions to pay athletes $20-22 million annually.

“I do have a steep learning curve, though, because there are just aspects of it I’ve never dealt with,” Clark said. “The firehose is full blast. I’m trying to drink everything I can, but sometimes water’s coming out of my ears because there’s just a lot. I love it.”

Top of mind this summer while making his way around the media days circuit has been identifying where first-round games will be held. For the first time in CFP’s history, first-round games will be on campuses.

But that doesn’t mean every school is prepared to host a major playoff game. For example, Kansas athletic director Travis Goff told ESPN’s Heather Dinich this week that if the Jayhawks host a first-round game, it will be at Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 20 because of construction at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

“We’ve reached out to all 134 FBS teams, and we’ve given them sort of the expectations – we’re not going to manage where they would play the game – but we want every school to understand what expectations are,” Clark said. “We want them to let us know where they would play, how they would manage tickets. Let us know what the hotels are, so they think about these things.

“Most schools are very good at game operations, but we want these games to be spectacular. And here’s the thing, most schools have six or eight months to think about the home game. In this case, they got two weeks. We want them to start thinking about it now. And then we want to have discussions if they think that maybe there’s an area where they’re lacking, say they have a stadium that’s under construction, then let’s think about where would that game be if and when you have the honor of hosting that first playoff game.”

In February 2022, former Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said it would be his preference for the Buckeyes to host a first-round CFP game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, citing weather and the playing service. He later said he had warmed up to hosting a first-round game at the Horseshoe.

Major programs could be facing a situation to play indoors or outside on campus this December. Clark emphasized the CFP will not push for one over the other.

“It is still their home game,” he said. “We’re not going to force things, but we are going to ensure they have adequate facilities and good plans for contingencies. What if there’s a weather issue? What if they have a water main break? All the things that you think about anyway for a football game, you need to be thinking about for that game.”