Tag: CFP Expansion

CFP committee announces venues and dates for 2024 and 2025 playoffs

We have the dates and locations for the 2024 and 2025 CFP.

The College Football Playoff committee announced the future dates and venues for the 2024 and 2025 playoffs on Tuesday. The expanded field will begin in the 2024 season.

That same year the Big Ten and SEC will each expand to 16 teams with the UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, Oklahoma Sooners, and Texas Longhorns making their debuts in their new conferences.

“We are pleased to be able to announce these game dates today,” said Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff. “We appreciate the efforts of all the parties involved in finalizing this schedule. This is the next significant step in bringing clarity to the launch of the 12-team playoff format in 2024. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is an important milestone along the way.”

2024 Season

First Round (Campus Games)

  • Friday, Dec. 20: One game (evening)
  • Saturday, Dec. 21: Three games (early afternoon, late afternoon, and evening)

Quarterfinals

  • Tuesday, Dec. 31: Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (evening)
  • Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (early afternoon)
  • Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025: Rose Bowl (late afternoon)
  • Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025: Allstate Sugar Bowl (evening)

Semifinals

  • Thursday Jan. 9, 2025: Capital One Orange Bowl (evening)
  • Friday Jan. 10, 2025: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (evening)

CFP National Championship

  • Monday, Jan. 20, 2025: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

2025 Season

First Round (Campus Games)

  • Friday, Dec. 19: One game (evening)
  • Saturday, Dec. 20: Three games (early afternoon, late afternoon, and evening)

Quarterfinals

  • Wednesday, Dec. 31: Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (evening)
  • Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2026: Capital One Orange Bowl (early afternoon)
  • Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2026: Rose Bowl (late afternoon)
  • Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2026: Allstate Sugar Bowl (evening)

Semifinals

  • Thursday Jan. 8, 2026: Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (evening)
  • Friday Jan. 9, 2026: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (evening)

CFP National Championship

  • Monday, Jan. 19, 2026: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida

Exact kickoff times for each will be announced at a later date.

LOOK: CFP committee reveals what the 2022 field expanded to 12 would have looked like

CFP committee showed what the 2022 playoffs would have looked like with 2024 rules and game sites.

The college football landscape will have many changes when they kick off the 2024 season. Not only will the Oklahoma Sooners, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, and Texas Longhorns change conferences, but we will also have expanded playoffs.

The new rules will give all five power conferences an automatic bid with the highest-seeded Group of Five school earning the sixth automatic bid. The next six spots will be given to the highest-ranked teams. The top four seeds will be based on the four highest-ranked conference champions getting bye weeks.

The College Football Playoff committee distributed the matchups for the 2022 field if they were using the expanded field.

No. 1 Georgia would have played the Tennessee-Kansas State winner in the Sugar Bowl. No. 4 Utah would have played the TCU-Tulane winner in the Fiesta Bowl. No. 3 Clemson would have played the Ohio State–Penn State winner in the Peach Bowl. And finally, No. 2 Michigan would have played the Alabama–USC winner in the Rose Bowl.

That field would have been fun to watch. Bill Hancock also confirmed the first-round CFP games that begin in 2024 will have one game on Friday and three on Saturday. Semifinal games will be held during the week to avoid going head-to-head with the NFL playoffs.

The 12-team playoffs can’t get here fast enough.

LSU coach Brian Kelly endorses a 12-team playoff

Kelly said he supports more access to the CFP.

On Wednesday, news broke that beginning in 2024, the College Football Playoff will expand from a four-team field to a 12-team field.

That’s a massive jump, and they could’ve gone to eight teams before going to 12, but here we go. As a fan of football, I love it because there will be more games to watch, but at what cost? Out of 12 entrants, how many of those teams could be legitimate contenders for the championship? Will it prevent two teams from one conference from playing for the national championship?

At the end of the day, I feel like we will end up with the same two teams as always.

Regardless, Tigers coach Brian Kelly considers himself a fan of the idea and endorsed the new playoff format when he met with the media ahead of Saturday’s SEC Championship.

“I just like more access, I guess. I’m a Division II football coach. I grew up with more teams involved in the playoffs. I liked that atmosphere,” Kelly said. “I don’t know that I have any kind of earth-shattering statement on it, I just like more access. I think you get some playoff games on campus, you involve the bowl games, keep them involved in it. I think it keeps more teams in the hunt as the season goes on in terms of vying for playoff spots. I think it’s exciting for college football.

“I don’t think in any way it takes away from the championship, the conference championships. We’ll see how that goes. That’s certainly up for discussion. Excited about the growth. I think it just keeps obviously the interest in the playoff chase further into the season.”

The new expansion definitely brings a ton of questions, but it will certainly help top of the line SEC programs like LSU make it into the field more easily.

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College Football Playoff set to expand to 12 teams in 2024 after Rose Bowl agrees to deal

The CFP is moving to 12 teams beginning in the 2024 season.

The final major hurdle to College Football Playoff expansion is no more.

Expanding the CFP from four teams to 12 has seemed inevitable since its board of managers voted in September to do so, but there was one major logistical issue standing in the way: getting the Rose Bowl on board.

With two years remaining on the current contract, the CFP needed all the New Year’s Six games on board, and on Wednesday night, the Rose Bowl finally agreed.

The playoff will expand to 12 teams beginning in 2024. The first round will take place on campus sites (or at a site of the higher-seeded team’s choosing) and quarterfinal and semifinal rounds will take place at bowl games on a rotating basis.

ESPN reported earlier this week that the Rose Bowl had been given an ultimatum to either agree to terms or be shut out in the next round of television contract negotiations in 2026. It seems the “Granddaddy of Them All” has opted to go with the former option.

It remains to be seen exactly how CFP expansion will affect college football as a whole, but it’s clear it will be yet another major change in a sport that has seen quite a few of them recently.

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Social media reacts to the 12-team College Football Playoff expansion

News of playoff expansion has the college football world buzzing.

The College Football Playoff is set to expand from four teams to 12 teams beginning in 2024. Continue reading “Social media reacts to the 12-team College Football Playoff expansion”

‘It’s great to have opportunities;’ Dan Lanning discusses expanded College Football Playoff

Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning hasn’t given much thought to the expanded CFP, but welcomes more opportunities to compete going forward.

Just before the start of the 2022 season, a vote was passed by the College Football Board of Managers which will expand the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12 teams, with the expected starting time in 2026.

The new format will feature the six highest-ranked conference champions as well as six at-large teams, a large cry from the four teams involved in the current process.

The timing on this announcement, less than one week before the first week of college football games, means many coaches haven’t given much, if any, thought to what this means for their program in the future.

Count Oregon coach Dan Lanning among those who are focusing on the here and now, especially after a less-than-stellar first week for the first-year head coach.

“I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into it just because it doesn’t affect us right now,” Lanning told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m trying to live in the right now. But I think it’s a great you know, it’s great to have opportunities to go compete at the end of the year and it makes things important.”

Lanning is no doubt concerned about getting through this season before he worries about a new rule change that may not happen for four years, but it is worth noting the Ducks would have benefitted more than a vast majority of programs had this rule been in place previously.

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Why College Football Playoff expansion to 12 teams is bad news for Alabama, Ohio State bettors

Some bettors will have to turn to other markets.

It was only a matter of when, not if the College Football Playoff would be expanded. Well, that time is finally here.

The CFP Board of Managers unanimously voted Friday in favor of a 12-team playoff, according to multiple reports. The new model is expected to start with the 2026 season, though some details need to be ironed out to see if it could begin sooner.

If you’re a bettor, this simultaneously expands your options when it comes to voting on CFP futures while also eliminating a couple other options…like, say, Alabama or Ohio State. The market will instead shift from the top-four teams to the teams likely to fall in that six to 16 range.

If you’re wondering how an expanded playoff field hurts the betting market for teams almost guaranteed to make the playoff, let me explain.

Alabama and Ohio State are perennial national title contenders, but a four-team field always left open the possibility they could miss the playoff with a single loss (Ohio State missed the playoffs last season at 11-2). So while the odds of these schools to make the CFP aren’t particularly valuable in the current format — both are -250 this year — there’s at least a little something there for people who want to bet large amounts.

That value will be essentially eliminated with a 12-team field. Those -250 odds will be more like -500 or longer.

According to The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach, the approved format will send the six highest-ranked conference champions to the playoff along with six at-large picks. That makes conference odds and national title odds the more appealing markets for Alabama and Ohio State bettors. Unless, of course, you think they’re going to miss a 12-team playoff field. But good luck with that.

Ohio State hasn’t finished a season ranked lower than No. 6 since 2013. Alabama has finished every since Nick Saban’s second year in 2008 as a top-10 team.

Instead, CFP bettors will want to focus on teams like Clemson, Texas A&M, Michigan, USC — schools that might occasionally compete for conference titles but will also be fringe at-large bids some years. Those type of schools are where the current value on the top four will shift.

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Report: College Football Playoff to expand to 12 teams in 2026, possibly as early as 2024

It’s happening!

After a winding process, expansion to the College Football Playoff appears to be on the horizon.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported on Friday that the CFP Board of Managers voted to expand the field to 12 teams beginning in 2026, though Thamel and Heather Dinich report that a change could potentially come sooner and the board will push league commissioners to make the change as soon as 2024. A vote on expansion was expected, and recent reports seemed to indicate there was a high likelihood of expanding to 12 teams.

The College Football Playoff was instituted beginning in the 2014 season as a replacement for the controversial BCS system. The current four-team system has received its fair share of criticism, as well, and adding more teams to the field appeared to be inevitable.

 

The SEC has landed two teams in the playoff field twice, and CFP expansion will open the door for even more league teams to potentially compete for a spot in the tournament.

There are a number of ways a 12-team playoff could be constructed, and as of now, it doesn’t even seem the commissioners currently know the details. But one thing is certain: There will be more meaningful football in December and January.

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Opinion: 12-team College Football Playoff in the works, but is it too much, too soon?

While a 12-team playoff sounds fun on paper, it’s far too much of a jump from the current format

The College Football Playoff has held its current format since the 2014 season. Since then, the landscape of college football has changed so much, with conference realignment news seemingly dropping every week.

The College Football Playoff might follow suit. The CFP presidents will be meeting Friday to discuss a potential expansion to the playoff. If they vote unanimously in favor of expansion, the playoff could have 12 teams in it as early as 2024.

Should the vote not be unanimous, it would have to wait until 2026. The contract between the CFP and ESPN expires after the 2025 playoff.  According to Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger, the most popular option remains the 12-team playoff that was proposed last Spring.

While an expanded playoff would be good for college football, putting in 12 teams is overkill.

I believe that six teams would be the sweet spot for an expanded playoff. I would be ok with an eight-team playoff, but six just feels right. If, for whatever reason, six teams aren’t enough, adding more teams is always an option. However, subtracting teams from the playoff doesn’t seem like an option. There’s no going back after introducing a 12-team playoff.

Here’s what the first round of a six-team playoff would have looked like for last season:

No. 1 Alabama: Bye

No. 2 Michigan: Bye

No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 6 Ohio State

No. 4 Cincinnati vs. No. 5 Notre Dame

This would have been a lot of fun. Adding in those No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5 games could add one more week of great football to the college football season. Adding those spots to the playoff could also lead to more athletic departments deciding to go all-in on their football programs, leading to more competitive teams. However, there simply isn’t enough blue-chip talent to go around for a competitive 12-team playoff.

College football is a very top-heavy sport. It always has been, and it always will be. There isn’t going to be a playoff where there’s one cinderella team every season. It will be a heavily one-sided affair in favor of the higher seeds.

A benefit of the proposed 12-team format is that fans would get to see more nonconference Power Five matchups between big programs. Seeing Florida play Wisconsin or Wake Forest play Oregon would be fun. I’m for that.

A lot of this is up in the air and we don’t know exactly what an expanded playoff would look like for 2024 if the vote even goes through unanimously. I’m hopeful that the new college football playoff, whatever form it ends up taking, takes the sport to a new level.

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Oregon’s DJ Johnson pushes for College Football Playoff expansion

Oregon’s DJ Johnson is in the group of people in favor of an expansion to the College Football Playoff.

While the talk of the college football world has been conference realignment over the past couple of months, at the heart of that conversation is the subject of expansion in the College Football Playoff.

At the moment, the CFP consists of 4 teams, voted on by a committee based on season success, strength of schedule, and quality of wins and losses. That has been the case since the inaugural playoff which took place in 2015, where the Oregon Ducks beat the Florida State Seminoles in the semi-finals, but fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the championship.

Since then, only one other team from the Pac-12 — the Washington Huskies — has made the playoff. For that reason, among many others, a large swath of people have been pushing for an expansion of the playoff, trying to get up to 12 or 16 teams in the mix.

Oregon linebacker DJ Johnson is one of those players to recently touch on this subject.

“I just feel it’s something that we want and need,” Oregon linebacker DJ Johnson said, via ESPN. “To not have a team on the West Coast in the Playoff just irritates you, because we definitely have talent.”

A larger playoff would mean more games for the athletes, but if you were to make the quarter-final and semi-final games aligned with bowl games and potentially cut down on non-conference games, it can be made to work in the schedule.

While the world of college football continues to shift in front of our eyes with NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment, don’t be shocked if we see more news about playoff expansion. It seems more likely than not that it is coming.

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