Rose Bowl Changes Direction, CFP Expansion Expected in 2024

An announcement could be made later this week that the College Football Playoff field will go from four teams to 12.

Sports Illustrated reported Wednesday evening that the Rose Bowl has informed the College Football Playoff that it has agreed to amend its contract, paving the way for early expansion.

The decision was considered to be the final major hurdle in the playoff going from four teams to 12 beginning with the 2024 season.

Alabama has dominated the playoff era and won three national titles in the four-team format (2015, 2017 and 2020), but at 10-2 this season appears to be on the outside looking in for the semifinals. The CFP selection committee has the Crimson Tide ranked No. 6 heading into championship weekend, and Alabama didn't reach the SEC Championship Game. 

The new format is expected to include the six highest-ranked conference champions (with the top four getting first-round byes), with the field filled out by the six top non-league champions.

If the 12-team format was already in use, Alabama would be on target to host Utah for a first-round playoff game, with the winner advancing to face No. 3 TCU. The SEC would have three teams in the tournament, Georgia and Tennessee being the others, with LSU trying to secure a spot by winning Saturday's conference championship game.

More than two months ago, CFP executives unanimously approved a 12-team expanded Playoff to begin no later than 2026. In order to start sooner, CFP officials need unanimous agreement to expand the playoff to 12 teams before the media rights contract with ESPN ends after the 2025 playoff. 

The Rose Bowl wanted guarantees regarding future playoffs, which are not under contract yet, in exchange for agreeing to expand early. 

Per SI writer Ross Dellenger, in its latest proposal to the CFP, the Rose Bowl was requesting to host a semifinal in two out of every three years assuming semifinals are held on New Year’s Day. It was one of many attempts by the Rose Bowl to keep its traditional date and time (5 p.m. ET on Jan. 1) in future postseason formats.

Five of the six bowls involved — Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Peach and Cotton — are in support of amending the contract to expand early, but made it clear that they were preparing to move on without the Rose Bowl. 

Consequently, the issue came down to the Rose Bowl easing off its demands, or risk being left out in the next contract. Because of the numerous issues involved, everything from revenue distribution, to the rotation of the bowls, time was running out to have everything lined up for 2024. 

College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock recently discussed what some of the logistical changes to the CFP will be while on Playfly’s On The Fly podcast:  to discuss coming changes to the CFP. 

“We could start on the ’24 regular season," he said. "We’re getting kind of late to make that decision, but we could still. Or we could wait until 2025 or ’26. All of the details, I’ve started making a list, and I’m in the hundreds. 

"The first round games will be on campus so tickets, for example, how many tickets does a visiting team receive? And the theory right now is that more or less it will be a home game, but you have to have tickets for the visitors. Some of the communities don’t have hotels right there and so, how far away would we be willing to go for that visiting team to stay. How many rooms for the visiting team? What kind of meeting space? When do they need to arrive? You’d normally arrive on Friday before a Saturday game, but do you want to do that with a game of this magnitude? Do you want to say ‘You need to try to come on Thursday’? So, that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the really cool details that we will get to work through over the next several months."

New CFP format that will start in 2024:
(1) 6 highest-ranked champs get AQs
(2) next 6 highest-ranked teams get At-Larges
(3) byes to top 4 conference champs
(4) 1st round at better seed

Attached is how a bracket would look if selections were todayhttps://t.co/1b7GjrWjz1 pic.twitter.com/rhh7EkoZCh

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 1, 2022

For more: 

Sources: Rose Bowl to Acquiesce on College Football Playoff Expansion for 2024

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