The College Football Playoffs will officially triple the size of the current four teams beginning with the 2024-25 season. The CFP board has formally approved a 12-team field that will increase access to the playoffs along with income for CFP and its affiliates.
CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said: “When the Board asked the CFP Management Committee to consider the possibility of expanding the playoffs from 2026 and starting the new format earlier, the Management Committee quickly got to work. More access to teams means more excitement for fans, alumni, students, and more student-athletes. Everyone realized that this change was in the best interest of college football and worked together to make it happen.
The first round of the 2024-25 playoffs will take place all week through Saturday, December 21st. CFP will attempt to schedule these first round matches later in the week. Games will be hosted either at the home stadiums of the highest-seeded teams in those games, or at other sites selected by that program for logistical purposes. These additional games are expected to bring in approximately $450 million in revenue from his ESPN for CFP and its members.
The expanded 12-team bracket will feature the 6 highest-ranked conference champions, followed by the next 6 highest-ranked teams as automatic qualifiers. The top four conference champions will be seeded 1-4 with a first round bye. The next top four teams (5th to 8th) will host his first-round matchup. The CFP selection committee will continue to determine weekly evaluations with criteria that will be re-evaluated in the future.
The dates are still to be worked out, but the venues for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 playoff quarter-finals, semi-finals and national championships have already been decided.
| quaterfinals |
fiesta, peach, rose, sugar |
cotton, orange, rose, sugar |
| semi-finals |
cotton, orange |
fiesta, peach |
| national championship |
Atlanta (January 20, 2025) |
Miami (January 19, 2026) |
“On behalf of the executive committee and the board, this is a thrill,” Hancock added. “It’s been a long road, but I am happy that more teams and more students will have the opportunity to compete in the national championship starting in the 2024 season. A new era in college football is about to begin. I’m looking forward to it.” “
The rubber stamp from the playoff board indicates that rather than requiring the Rose Bowl to acquiesce on Wednesday night and play in its traditional time slot of 5pm ET on January 1, in line with the event’s scheduling policy. Given after agreeing to do. That time slot is considered one of the most valuable in sports television. A contract signed by the Rose Bowl, like those signed by other large ‘contract bowls’, could allow a great deal of flexibility in its scheduling process.
In the expanded playoffs, the game itself is more important than the bowl hosting the contest. Rose’s refusal to follow a more uniform scheduling policy would have delayed expansion until 2026 after his CFP’s current contract with ESPN ended. This would have generated an estimated $450 million in additional revenue for those involved, and may have pulled the Rose Bowl out of the selection process after the new deal was signed. CFP and ESPN have a mutual agreement to begin a 30-day exclusive negotiation period for post-2026 rights.
Over the years, all BCS/CFP scheduling decisions so far have accommodated the Rose Bowl to broadcast the game in its preferred time slot of 5:00 pm on or around New Year’s Day. rice field. This game was traditionally scheduled after the Tournament of Roses of Parade. The timing was such that the sun always set west of the San Gabriel Mountains during the game, creating one of the most iconic settings in American sports. However, not all accommodations are off the table. According to Hancock, the selection committee will try to tie Rose with Big His Ten or his Pac-12 team in the quarterfinals.
It took college football 71 years from its first game (Princeton vs. Rutgers) to become a ranking team in the telecommunications era. The AP poll began in 1936 with his It took him 62 years from there to actually decide the champion. His BCS started in 1998 and lasted 16 years until his CFP debuted in 2014.
