The College Football Playoff has answered the question of whether or not it will expand before the 2026 season.
The CFP announced Friday it will remain at four teams for the duration of its current television contract with ESPN, which runs through the 2025 season. Bill Hancock, executive director of the CFP, said in a statement the CFP’s board of managers has accepted a recommendation from the management committee to keep the playoff format the same for now.
“Even though the outcome did not lead to a recommendation for an early expansion before the end of the current 12-year contract, the discussions have been helpful and informative,” Hancock said. “I am sure they will serve as a useful guide for the board of managers and for the management committee as we determine what the playoff will look like beginning in the 2026-2027 season.”
Playoff expansion has been a hot topic conversation among the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences since the summer when a subgroup of the management committee proposed a 12-team model. The subcommittee, though, was comprised of just three conference commissioners (Greg Sankey of the SEC, Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12 and Craig Thompson of the Mountain West) and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick.
Immediate expansion was met by resistance from some, most notably the ACC. Commissioner Jim Phillips hasn’t been shy about publicly voicing his conference’s opposition of an expanded playoff amid the changing landscape of college athletics. Phillips has said his conference also has concerns about the physical toll a longer season could take on players, reasons challenged publicly this week by American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco.
Regardless, unanimity was needed among the FBS conferences in order to get playoff expansion approved before the current contract expires. According to ESPN, the 10 conference commissioners and Swarbrick held a videoconference Wednesday in which they determined they couldn’t come to a consensus.
The board of managers met Thursday to approve the recommendation to stick with four teams for the time being.
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