Tag: Bill Hancock

College Football Playoff provides update on timeline of expansion

Looks like we’ll have to wait for expansion for the CFP.

Consider it dead for now.

After a lot of talk and traction on expanding the College Football Playoff earlier in the year in an abbreviated fashion, even potentially prior to the end of the current contract, those in charge released a statement on Friday tabling the idea. Instead, according to the CFP Board of Managers, the current four-team model will continue until the contract is up.

“The Board of Managers has accepted a recommendation from the Management Committee to continue the current four-team playoff for the next four years, as called for in the CFP’s original 12-year plan, said Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the CFP committee in a statement. “At the same time, the Board expects the Management Committee to continue its discussions of a new format that would go into effect for the 2026-27 season.

“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,” continued Hancock. “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.

“I thank the working group for its hard work that resulted in the 12-team proposal, and the Management Committee for its thorough and diligent job reviewing it and other possible expansion ideas. This has been a long, careful, and detailed process that involved many people considering a complex matter. I am grateful to everyone for their dedication to college football and the detailed and deliberative effort everyone put into the consideration of a different format. I know the four-team event will continue to be successful.”

What this means is get used to much of the same where we really have an “and-one” and not a playoff. You’ll probably see the same set of teams contend for inclusion which will only make the calls for expansion even louder. And you can more or less blame the whole Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC as the reason for the pause. That move halted a lot of traction other conferences had towards getting something done.

You can bet at some point that expansion will happen, and it sure sounds like 12 teams might be the number, but we’ll have to wait longer than most want it appears.

Ho-hum.

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College Football Playoff releases statement on possible expansion

The College Football Playoff management committee met in Dallas on Wednesday to discuss the possible expansion of the playoff, but the committee was not able to agree on whether to expand the current four-team format to 12 teams. “As the committee …

The College Football Playoff management committee met in Dallas on Wednesday to discuss the possible expansion of the playoff, but the committee was not able to agree on whether to expand the current four-team format to 12 teams.

“As the committee moves forward, there remains issues to be discussed,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement. “Given the complexity of these matters, the management committee will meet again in Chicago next week to continue our discussions.

“As we said in June when the 12-team playoff was proposed, that was the first step in a long process. It is vital that all issues be fully explored and addressed.

“We look forward to our meeting in Chicago next week.”

The proposal calls for the bracket each year to include the six highest-ranked conference champions, plus the six highest-ranked other teams as determined by the CFP selection committee. No conference would qualify automatically and there would be no limit on the number of participants from a conference.

Under the proposal, the four highest-ranked conference champions would be seeded one through four and each would receive a first-round bye, while teams seeded five through 12 would play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-ranked team. (The team ranked No. 5 would host No. 12; team No. 6 would meet team No. 11; team No. 7 would play team No. 10; and team No. 8 would meet No. 9.) The quarterfinals, Playoff Semifinals and national championship game would be played at neutral sites.

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College Football Playoff Management Committee exploring options for expansion

According to a release by the College Football Playoff Committee Friday, there is a working group looking at potential expansion.

Before we dive into this, it’s time to throw out some disclaimers ahead of time. Just because things are being looked at, it doesn’t mean change is coming.

That being said, the College Football Playoff Management Committee concluded its annual spring meeting remotely this week, and it appears as though expansion talk is on the table according to a release on Friday. Executive Director Bill Hancock provided an update on a working group within the committee that is studying the potential for future changes to the format of the CFP.

In the group’s analysis, it has reviewed some 63 possibilities for change. Those include 6, 8, 10, 12, and even 16-team options, each with a variety of different scenarios. The anticipation is that the group will make a report to the management committee about the future format at an upcoming meeting yet to be determined.

Well then. The fact that it’s at least being looked at is — at the least — noteworthy.

“Since January 2019, when the presidents charged us with taking a careful look at all aspects of CFP, including the format, this group has diligently evaluated options for the future,” said Hancock. “Its efforts were delayed as a result of the pandemic, but it met again this week in Dallas, and we look forward to hearing more when its work is complete.

“I want to remind everyone that whatever recommendations the management committee may make, all decisions about our future format—whether to remain at four teams or change to a different format—will be made by the 11 presidents and chancellors who manage the CFP.

“We are entering the eighth year of our 12-year agreement for the College Football Playoff and the management committee is extremely satisfied with the popularity and success of the CFP,” Hancock said. “It is wise and good management to review where we stand as we discuss what the future might—’might,’ for emphasis–look like.”

OK.

We’ve said for a long time that the playoff would eventually expand. This doesn’t look like a locomotive steaming out of the station, but it’s at least a few shovels of coal into the steam engine to get the train going to a slow roll, and that’s further along than we’ve been before. You have to believe that most of the country is tired of seeing the same teams make the playoff, and I for one believe you can’t expand the thing too far, but eight teams makes a lot of sense.

Regardless, we’ll continue to keep an eye on this. As it stands at the moment, this is just a news nugget that could have legs further down the road.

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College Football Playoff committee releases 2020-21 schedule

The College Football Playoff committee released their final 2020-21 schedule. They also made a change to teams traveling to playoff sites.

The 2020 college football schedule has been one in question for the better part of the last month or so. Speculation ran rampant in terms of playing nonconference games as part of a full schedule or keeping it conference only. On Wednesday the College Football Playoff committee released the schedule for the upcoming season.

The College Football Playoff (CFP) selection committee will release its final rankings of the 2020-21 season Sunday, December 20, executive director Bill Hancock announced. The top four teams will participate in the Playoff Semifinals Friday, January 1, in the Rose Bowl Game and Sugar Bowl. The national championship game will be played Monday, January 11, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

The final rankings were originally scheduled to be released Sunday, December 6. The CFP Management Committee made the change as a result of several conferences having moved their championship games to December 12, 18 or 19.

The committee’s final meeting of the season will be December 18-19-20 in Grapevine, Texas.  The CFP will announce the full schedule of this fall’s selection committee meetings at a later date.

Executive Director of the College Football Playoff committee Bill Hancock released a statement in regards to the pandemic. Teams will do the game week prep on campus rather than the travel site in years past.

“In this unprecedented time, the Management Committee believes it is in the best interest for the health and safety of the student-athletes, coaches and staffs to complete their game-week preparation on campus, under the familiar protocols they will have used all season,” said Hancock. “This is an unfortunate consequence of the pandemic, but it is the right thing to do.”

College Football Playoff Director Bill Hancock still “planning on a CFP”

ESPN’s Heather Dinich discussed the state of college football Monday and he confirmed they are “planning on a CFP.” And “on time.”

More and more people are starting to weigh in on the prospects of football this fall. Ever since every major league and college sport was either suspended or canceled entirely, the focus has moved to what happens from there.

Next up is the possibility of college and NFL football suffering the same fate. And frankly, with the state of where we are with the tragic novel coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where we don’t have some sort of disruption to football on the gridiron this fall.

The latest person to weigh in on the matter is College Football Playoff Director Bill Hancock. He spoke with ESPN’s Heather Dinich Monday and confirmed right off the bat that things are proceeding ahead as scheduled.

“We’re planning on a CFP,” Hancock told Dinich. “That’s what our staff is doing as we speak. Planning for it on time.”

He was also asked what would happen if a college football season didn’t happen.

“It’s too soon to speculate,” said Hancock. “It’s only April. It’s just too soon. It’s premature. The decision about whether to have a season and a CFP won’t be made by the coaches and commissioners. It will be made by the medical people. We have to be prepared, and we will be prepared, to have a CFP.”

Trying to get everything in order to start the college football season on time though is quite the undertaking. You have several states, universities, students, venues and other stakeholders that have to have time to get things in order so that things aren’t rushed. Most specifically, things have to be done in such a way that the student-athletes are put in harm’s way when it comes to the time needed for conditioning.

Hancock echoed those sentiments.

“There’s a long ramp-up time for this,” he said. “Could it be shorter? Sure. What is it? I don’t know. Would it be the same? No, it wouldn’t be the same. I can promise you the Super Bowl people are knee deep into Tampa prep right now. Knee deep. We all do the same thing. We’re all very deliberate about our planning. Could we do it without that ramp-up time? Yes.”

Everyone is anxious to get answers on where things are headed, but things just aren’t to the point where anyone knows yet. We all want our lives back, and we all want to live for the passions that excite us the most. That includes college football, but there’s just no way of knowing and predicting what this virus is going to do.

For now, be patient, stay safe, and continue to be there for each other.

 

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