Buckeyes Now

Board Of Managers Approves 12-Team College Football Playoff

The field is expected to expand by 2026, the season after ESPN's contract with the College Football Playoff ends.

Andrew Lind

In this story:

The College Football Playoff’s board of managers unanimously agreed during their meeting on Friday to expand the field to 12 teams for the 2026 season.

“This is an historic and exciting day for college football,” CFP board of managers chairman and Mississippi State president Mark Keenum said in a statement. “More teams, more participation and more excitement are good for our fans, alumni, and student-athletes. 

"I'm grateful to my colleagues on the board for their thoughtful approach to this issue and for their resolve to get expansion across the goal line and for the extensive work of the management committee that made this decision possible.”

The new format will include the six highest-ranked conference champions and six highest-rated at-large teams, framework that was initially proposed by a working group last summer.

The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded No. 1-4 and receive a first-round bye, while the teams seeded No. 5-12 will play on the home field of the higher-ranked team.

The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played at bowl sites, presumably those that make up the current College Football Playoff rotation, including the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Peach and Fiesta.

The championship game, meanwhile, will be at a neutral site, just as it has been since the playoff was implemented during the 2014 season. 

“I’m very pleased we were able to get this accomplished and I look forward to expansion taking place,” Keenum said. “The four-team playoff has been highly popular and successful. I believe this new format will be even more popular and successful.”

Ohio State president Kristina M. Johnson is notably on the 11-member board of managers, which features presidents and chancellors from the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences, as well as Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins.

Back in February, the board of managers announced the College Football Playoff would continue to use a four-team format through the 2025 season, when its original contract with ESPN expires. 

However, the board has tasked the conference commissioners, which comprise the College Football Playoff's management committee, to assess he possibility of beginning the expanded playoff in either 2024 or 2025.

They are scheduled to meet next Thursday to discuss such matters, though it could take months before an announcement is made. It’s also possible they decide to take the new format to the open market and involve multiple television partners, rather than just ESPN.

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Andrew Lind
ANDREW LIND

Andrew Lind is an Ohio State beat writer and photographer at BuckeyesNow, founder of The Ohio State Uniform Database and the NCAA and NFL writer at SportsLogos.net.

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