'Too soon to say' what will happen to College Football Playoff automatic bids, CFP executive chair says

Conference expansion and realignment has officially brought about the era of super conferences, with a handful of moves Friday that shook up the foundation of college football and threw some potential wrinkles into the College Football Playoff.

As things stand, the College Football Playoff is set to expand to 12 teams in 2024. But it’s what happens to the automatic bids that will be fascinating to watch in the coming weeks and months.

The 12-team playoff was set to have the six highest-ranked conference champions receiving automatic bids into the playoff, with the rest of the field filled out from the six highest-ranked teams remaining.

The four highest-ranked conference champions would have received a bye to the quarterfinals.

But with the Big Ten at 18 teams now and the Big 12 potentially at 16 pending the additions of Arizona, Arizona State and Utah, the Pac-12 would be down to just four teams. It’s unclear whether a significantly reduced Pac-12 — even if it adds some teams from here — could still qualify for a conference champion bid, but it’s something the College Football Playoff committee will be pondering.

“It’s too soon to say,” executive director Bill Hancock told The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel. “The CFP Management Committee and the Board will discuss the future format when it becomes appropriate.”

It’ll likely be discussing that sooner than later, as the Power Five has essentially become a Power Four given the latest round of conference realignment.

However, pushing discussions about the College Football Playoff forward is nothing new.

Originally the 12-team format was under discussion with the start of the 2026 season, when the initial College Football Playoff agreement with ESPN ended following the 2025 season. The CFP committee had no problem getting it pushed forward further.

“We’re delighted to be moving forward,” Hancock said at the time. “When the board expanded the playoff beginning in 2026 and asked the CFP Management Committee to examine the feasibility of starting the new format earlier, the Management Committee went right to work. More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students and student-athletes.

“We appreciate the leaders of the six bowl games and the two future national championship game host cities for their cooperation. Everyone realized that this change is in the best interest of college football and pulled together to make it happen.”

Now it’s time for the CFP committee to put heads together again and decide on the best potential alternatives to the automatic bids given the shift in the conference landscape over the past 72 hours or so.