Report: Officials working toward expanded CFP field in 2024, massive payday

It’s official — the College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams. But the question is now about when it’ll happen, and it could happen sooner than expected.

Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger reported 2025 is the “plausible” start date for a 12-team playoff because that lines up with the end of the CFP’s deal with ESPN. However, he added officials could work toward a 2024 start date because that would create $450 million in television revenue.

That won’t be easy, though. There’s plenty to figure out before an early expansion, notably TV rights and game sites.

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“There are logistical hurdles,” Dellenger wrote. “A current operation of three games (semifinals + championship) would nearly quadruple in size to 11 games, with just 27 months of lead time. The original deadline for expanding early was nine months ago.

“The CFP just recently announced the dates and sites of the championship games for the 2024 and ’25 seasons, Atlanta and Miami, respectively. In any expanded playoff model, the championship game will be moved back at least a week, into mid-January. New sites and new dates might be necessary.”

The discussion about starting the expanded CFP will start next week when the commissioners meet in Dallas and could continue into the end of the month when they meet in Chicago, according to Dellenger. A lot has happened since their last meeting when talks initially broke down, though. The Big 12 has a new commissioner and USC and UCLA announced they’re leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in 2024.

College Football Playoff Board of Managers unanimously votes to expand to 12 teams

The College Football Playoff will officially change following the decision today by the Board of Managers to expand to 12 teams. With discussions of expansion heating up over the last several weeks, the format will now include a dozen programs. Now it’s about when this format could take effect.

The meeting was first reported by SI’s Ross Dellenger. ESPN’s Pete Thamel was then one of the first to report the decision. The 11 committee members voted unanimously to officially expand the playoff. He said, as of now, the changes will not take place until the 2026 season after ESPN’s contract with the CFP expires following the 2025 playoffs.