It may come as no surprise to those involved in the college football world but the inevitable changes to the leagues current playoff structure have been a widely discussed topic and the possibility of these alterations could possibly happen in the near future.
The most likely of the outcomes could be an expansion to a 12-team College Football Playoff.
It was reported by Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, who spoke to “more than a dozen stakeholders” and found that everyone ranging from university officials, athletic directors, media executives and more expressed that a 12-team playoff is a likely outcome.
The currently have not been any models presented to the commissioners or presidents which would be the first step toward implementation. But the consensus appears to be that a 12-team playoff is favored over an 8-team tournament.
“The reason that you go to 12 is because you can develop the road of least resistance toward a good result,” said a high-ranking college official with knowledge of the process in the report.
The process is still someways off but on July 17 and 18 the four member working group who has been working on exploring the expansion of the playoff for the past two years will be meeting with the CFP management committee. The report of the four member group will be presented to a committee made up of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson.
Following the two days the management group will provide one recommendation for the following week when CFP board of managers, a group of 11 presidents and chancellors from the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame, will examine what had been discussed and will be able to come to a rough estimate of what the playoffs future will be.
A final decision is not expected to be made immediately following the presentations.
Thamel explained in his report that even if a model was picked later this month there would still be “months of hand-wringing, planning and negotiations before a news release announces a formal deal.”
“I do believe they’ve looked at all kinds of different things,” an industry source said to Yahoo Sports. “But I haven’t even heard an option B discussed in any detail.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
