College Football Playoff Committee Rejects Eight-Team Playoff
If you wanted an expanded College Football Playoff, you didn’t get your wish on Wednesday.
According to ESPN, PAC-12 commissioner Larry Scott suggested expanding the College Football Playoff from four to eight teams for this season, but the CFP management committee did not approve the idea during Wednesday’s meeting.
This meeting was the first time it became public that one Power 5 commissioner had specifically pitched an eight-team format to the committee to be considered.
Hancock told ESPN, “They decided that doing that now would be such a significant change, and come with so many challenges, especially given the timing with the season already underway, that they concluded that the best outcome would be to make no changes in the format. They will continue to discuss the future, which is just good, responsible business practice, although I must say that dealing with COVID has become everyone’s focus now.”
Scott’s pitch to the committee was tied to COVID-19, saying that each conference was going to be playing a different number of conference games and there would be no Power 5 teams playing each other in the non-conference, making the analysis of these teams difficult.
But it would take a lot to change the format. First, all 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick need to agree, then the CFP board of managers, which comprises 11 university presidents and chancellors, would make the final decision.
Since the Playoff began in 2014, the SEC leads with seven teams making the playoff, followed by the ACC (6), and the Big Ten and Big 12 with four teams each. The Pac-12 is last with only two.
The College Football Playoff is in the seventh year of a 12-year deal.
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