College football fans who have been begging for the College Football Playoff to expand beyond four teams are getting their wish. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the CFP Board of Managers has decided on a 12-team College Football Playoff expansion during today’s meeting.
Thamel added that the 12-team model is expected to begin in 2026 once the current contract ends, per his source. It remains possible that it could be instituted earlier but that decision will take time to work out.
The 12-team model is expected to start in 2026, after the current contract, according to a source. There's still a chance that it could go earlier, but those details are complicated and would take some time to work out. https://t.co/sRWlmiDvbe
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 2, 2022
It’s not terribly surprising to see the CFP expand as many of the top voices in the sport have been advocating for it or saying that it’s only a matter of time. This news comes only six months after the College Football Playoff committee announced that the four-team playoff format would stand pat through 2026.
Naturally, there are a lot of moving pieces with a 12-team playoff. First, it increases the number of games and the length of the season, which rubs many people the wrong way when it comes to student-athletes, though the advent of NIL should ease some of those concerns.
Second, how teams qualify for the playoff will be a major sticking point. Will there be automatic qualifiers for conference champions? If so, which conferences? Can one conference have, say, six schools in the playoff? Who decides which 12 teams make it and on what criteria?
Whatever the criteria, it is bound to bring controversy with it given that college football refuses to give up the conference model and submit to a fairer system like what many of professional sports use. So while there were some very strong reactions to the news of the expansion, expect the strong reactions to continue for the foreseeable future.
The people FINALLY get what they want.
A 12-team playoff. It'll save college football
So many options here:
Top 4 get a bye
top seed plays 1st rd at home https://t.co/tZujIRPRzR— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) September 2, 2022
One has to think had this been decided on the prior vote that maybe… just maybe…. that USC/UCLA would not have defected to the Big Ten.
But that money would be hard to turn down in the B1G https://t.co/PlSugYdA1p
— Jeremy Mauss (@JeremyMauss) September 2, 2022
OH MY GOD YES THEY FINALLY DID IT https://t.co/2BdMhGGPsr
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) September 2, 2022
Would have preferred 8, but we can't have everything. https://t.co/dVsFcwokpQ
— Matt Lanza 🤌🏼 (@mattlanza) September 2, 2022
so we did this whole dog and pony show, the Alliance and played an entire season all to agree on the same thing we agreed on in the first place https://t.co/LKwONAUOPY
— Kegan Reneau (@KeganReneau) September 2, 2022
New day for college football. The regular season will mean less but the postseason will become more exciting. https://t.co/Nzi3Cqt5Xm
— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) September 2, 2022
Can't wait to hear the 13th and 14th ranked teams complaining they should have gotten in. https://t.co/q5IGseB4D1
— Brian Neal (@BrianNealNews) September 2, 2022
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.