Report: Group of Five schools exploring invitational College Football Playoff

As the 2024 college football season fast approaches, conference commissioners from the Group of Five conferences already have one eye on the future. They will have an in-person meeting in Dallas next week to discuss the future of the sport.

Among the topics of conversation will be a shifting landscape in the sport as the playoffs expand and new ideas about tweaking the system trickle through the sport.

A Yahoo! Sports report notes that the G5 meeting will likely address future issues such as whether the G5 will maintain its one automatic qualifying playoff spot and whether leagues like the Big Ten and SEC could eventually get multiple automatic berths in the field — a looming potential threat to the G5.

But there’s another angle.

The G5 commissioners will also discuss “the possibility of a reshaped postseason incorporating the bowl system.”

“We are open to all of that. That would be really interesting and have some value,” Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez told Yahoo! Sports. “What if it’s like an NIT of football?”

The main goal for the G5 conference commissioners is to ensure maximum revenue generation and interest at that level of college football. The leagues are not interested in surrendering their current automatic playoff spot in the larger College Football Playoff.

The driving concern is that the G5 could be left in a worse position if changes to the current College Football Playoff format cede more power to mega leagues like the Big Ten and the SEC.

It’s something the conference commissioners have been discussing for a bit now.

“They could change the format. They’ve left it open,” said Mike Aresco, the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s all up in the air [after the 2025 playoff].”

Could that mean two simultaneous playoffs running? A joint venture between the two levels?

That remains to be seen. But once again the wheels appear to be in motion for another seismic shift in college football. Yahoo! Sports’ detailed reporting is worth reading, because it provides a comprehensive look at all the intricate dynamics.