Greg Sankey swung open the doors and burst into the circle of reporters gathered in the lobby of Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Ill. The SEC commissioner took a deep breath inward as if he was seconds away from a major announcement, maybe a breakthrough in negotiations for college football’s expanded Playoff.
“My quote is this!” he bellowed, and then, as he darted toward the door, Sankey smiled and pointed toward CFP executive director Bill Hancock, “Whatever he says!”
The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met for about 10 hours over two days here. Hancock says the group “made progress” toward the end goal—expanding the College Football Playoff by 2024—but no specifics, answers or details were provided. No final decisions were made (or at least they weren’t made public).
“Earlier is icing on the cake. We’re going to have our cake in 2026,” Hancock says. “Can we ice it now and start earlier? That’s what we’re working on now.”
Commissioners next meet in Dallas on Oct. 20, which some believe is a deadline of sorts to determine whether expansion can happen before the current TV contract expires after the 2025 season. Between now and then, they are expected to hold a bevy of virtual calls with one another as well as on-campus subcommittee groups.
For what it’s worth, commissioners exited Tuesday and Wednesday’s meetings with more optimism over early expansion than maybe ever before. There appears to be more of a collaborative effort and collegially atmosphere compared to last year, when expansion stalled because of an assortment of issues, many of them frivolous in nature. Commissioners even all dined together on Tuesday night in Chicago.
“There a million details, but I’m really encouraged by our ability to work through them. Lot of work to do,” Swarbrick said. “Thus far, [there’s] nothing that causes you to say, ‘This is impossible.’”
CFP presidents adopted the 12-team expansion model about a month ago. If you’ve forgotten the details, the highest-ranked six conference champions receive automatic bids into the field, and the next six highest-ranked teams get at-large berths. The top four conference champions get a bye into the quarterfinals. The four first-round games are played on the campus of the better seeds (Nos. 9–12 at Nos. 5–8). Six bowls host the quarterfinals and semifinals in a rotation, and the national title game is put out for bid as it is now.
At the very latest, the Playoff will begin in 2026, but the executive board of presidents encouraged commissioners to find a way to expand as early as ’24. However, there are plenty of hurdles.
After a month of negotiations, where do things stand?
Commissioners seem to be handling the 2024 and ’25 playoffs separately from ’26 and beyond. The CFP has four years remaining on its current contract with ESPN, running through the ’25 Playoff. That means a new contract needs to be agreed to starting in ’26.
But first, officials are trying to determine whether they can expand early. Because of the expedited timeline needed to hold a Playoff in 2024 and/or ’25, those events could look much different from the ’26-and-beyond version—not from a size standpoint (still 12 teams) or even a format standpoint (still six AQs plus six at-large), but from a schedule and logistical standpoint.
“You take an issue, and one of the early elements of the discussion of that issue is, ‘Is this [2024 and ’25] critical?’ You put it in one bucket or the other,” Swarbrick said.
In the 2024–25 Playoffs, particulars have to be unanimously agreed upon. That’s not the case with ’26 and beyond, because it does not fall under the current contract. The expectation is that dates of Playoff rounds may differ as well as the revenue distribution model in ’24–25 compared to anything ’26 and beyond.
Prepare for midweek Playoff games
Be prepared for first-round Playoff games to kick off on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Or maybe all three. As has reported, this is expected. It’s something that CFP executive director Bill Hancock strongly suggested in a conversation with reporters Tuesday. Hancock said he’d be “surprised” if all four first-round games were on a Saturday. That’s for at least two reasons: avoiding competing with the NFL, which begins regular-season games on Saturdays in mid-December; and television windows.
“You’d like to have each game in its own window. As you know, there are just three windows: 12 [p.m.], 4 and 8,” Hancock says.
Inside the room, discussions have centered around several possibilities, including holding one Playoff game each night Wednesday through Friday and then a Saturday afternoon Playoff game leading into the NFL games. Or maybe you play two Thursday games, a Friday game and a Saturday. Or two Saturday games—one potentially competing against the NFL—and one each on Thursday or Friday.
Either way, expect a midweek game or two. But much of that will be up to the network (see below).
ESPN holds the rights in 2024 and ’25
ESPN controls the broadcasting rights for the 2024 and ’25 Playoffs. While some commissioners have expressed a desire for multiple media partners to broadcast the Playoff, Hancock says there has been no discussion about having multiple networks for ’24 and ’25 because, well, ESPN owns them. The network will have a choice: (1) televise all 11 CFP games, or (2) allow a second media outlet—a competitor—to bid on part of the package.
“Everybody understands we need to talk to multiple networks,” Hancock said earlier this month. “We have 11 games. We’d like to talk to multiple broadcasters about televising those. Whether multiple people televise them or not is to be determined. Might happen, might not. We all see an advantage in having multiple partners.”
Late last fall, CFP officials said the network expressed flexibility, but plenty has changed since. There’s been another wave of realignment, the Big Ten signed its new ESPN-less deal, and two Power 5 leagues—the Pac-12 and Big 12—have opened negotiations with the network and Fox on reaching a new media rights package.
Some believe ESPN will not budge on exclusivity to the final two years of the contract. “No way,” says one CFP source. That means full control for ESPN in 2024 and ’25 before going to market for the next contract starting in ’26. However, going to market does not mean that the CFP will include multiple media partners starting in ’26, Sankey said earlier this month.
“We all said for [2026], we would fully go to market with the media rights. What that conveyed is that everybody will have an opportunity to participate,” he said. “We were always going to market. There’s no guarantee we’d go with multiple media partners. That’s a possibility, but we have to see the actual proposals.”
Home games are happening
There seems to be no sentiment to move the first-round games from on-campus stadiums to bowl sites. The topic did not arise during commissioners’ discussions on Tuesday, Hancock says. And most commissioners say privately they do not expect the first round to move from campuses.
In fact, there is talk among many athletic directors to move the quarterfinals to campus sites, arguing that the top four seeds in the Playoff will never host a postseason game—opportunities that will be both a competitive advantage and a financial boon (though most if not all of the ticket revenue is expected to go toward the CFP).
Bowl Season, the organization presiding over the 42 bowl games, believes the bowls should host the first round. Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli is in a continuous lobbying effort to achieve such.
