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January 18, 2022 By: Mark Knudson

Lack of progress toward expanded College Football Playoff is source of frustration for many

It was an exciting and often unpredictable college football season, but the true drama since the summer of 2021 has been off the playing field.

And there is no offseason for that.

For instance, back in June of 2021, a four-person committee comprised of Craig Thompson, Commissioner of the Mountain West, Greg Sankey, Commissioner of the SEC, Bob Bowlsby, Commissioner of the Big 12 and Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick came together to announce an agreed upon plan to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams. It was met with universal acceptance.

Then, a few weeks later, it wasn’t.

Oklahoma and Texas announced they were moving to the SEC, and all momentum for playoff expansion stopped. Dead.

The issue of the agreed upon 12-team playoff sat out there, flapping in the breeze, while the Big 10, Pac 12 and ACC got their collective hackles up and decided to form an “alliance” for future decision making purposes. They did come up with a nice logo…but nothing more.

Fast forward to this past week. Georgia defeats Alabama in an All-SEC title game while expanded playoffs are the topic of another meeting, this time including all 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame. There’s hope in the air at the start.

Then there wasn’t.

“We’re not at a stalemate, but I’m not as optimistic now as I was going into Indianapolis (for the meetings)” said Thompson on a recent podcast with the former Commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, Karl Benson. The 11 entities in the meeting room could not come to an agreement. They couldn’t even agree on the previous agreement. The meetings broke up with no changes proposed.

“But there’s still a chance…there’s still time, and there’s still some runway on this,” Thompson continued. “But the shame of it is we could have an expanded play-off in years 11 and 12 (of the current agreement) if people were willing to give a little bit. There doesn’t seem to be the willingness to compromise that you and I experienced for 25 years sitting in that same room,” Thompson told Benson. “It’s very frustrating for a number of us.”

The meeting was adjourned with only the agreement that they’d meet again in a month or so, after the upcoming NCAA “Constitutional Convention.” Meanwhile, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips was quoted as saying his league was steadfast against playoff expansion at this time.

It appears that the process may be headed back to square one.

The current contract for a four-team playoff at the end of the regular season expires after the 2025 season. That would make 12 years of the four team playoff. There’s nothing in place, no plan, no agreements of any kind for a playoff starting with the 2026 season.

There is, however, the implied threat of a return to “split divisions” like professional boxing has, where there are multiple “champions” at almost every weight class. There are those in powerful positions in college athletics who appear willing to “do their own thing” in terms of capping off the postseason.

The sport has been in this place before.

Until the Big 10 and Pac 10 (at the time) agreed to join the party – first the BCS and then the current playoff system – there were seasons when college football finished the season with more than one team claiming the national title. It was based strictly on the voting process and computer rankings back then, and six times since all the voting happened after the bowl games, the sport has had split national champs. The most recent was in 2003, when LSU won the Bowl Championship Series title, but Pac-10 champion USC won the Rose Bowl and was crowned champs by one poll.

We could be heading back into that sort of arrangement if playoff expansion is not agreed upon by all the parties.

“I understand all the positions,” Thompson added. “From the jump I have said all along, I don’t know when a new format gets implemented or how long it’s going to take, but I do believe that there will be an expanded CFP, rather than no CFP or an exclusive CFP, but that’s just me.

“We should be doing what’s good for the game. We need to be better stewards and help promote college football. Let’s not just protect, let’s grow.”

The issues appear small to outsiders. Access for at least one “Group of Five” champion to gain an automatic bid, the New Year’s Day status of the Rose Bowl, who gets access to what bowls, etc. All things that had been worked out by the four person committee that the larger group hasn’t been able to endorse.

In the case of the decision makers here, it would appear that more isn’t better.

Listen to Mark Knudson and former WAC, MAC and Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson talk about college athletics on the “Knudson and the Commish” Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms.