The college presidents who oversee the Faculty Soccer Playoff are scheduled to fulfill Friday to debate increasing the four-team format, re-opening the chance {that a} new mannequin for crowning a champion might be carried out as quickly because the 2024 season.
Two individuals conversant in the state of affairs advised The Related Press on Wednesday that CFP’s Board of Managers, led by Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, is ready to convene by video convention.
There isn’t a assure the presidents will take any official motion or vote to approve an growth mannequin, however one other individual conversant in the state of affairs advised AP they want to speed up a course of that had floor to a halt six months in the past.
All of the individuals spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity as a result of the board’s plans weren’t being made public.
The CFP administration committee, comprised of 10 FBS convention commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, is scheduled to fulfill subsequent week in Dallas.
The administration committee is answerable for hashing out a format for the CFP, however the presidents have the ultimate say on what occurs with the playoff.
Again in February, CFP Govt Director Invoice Hancock introduced growth talks among the many commissioners had failed to produce the needed unanimous consensus in time for the format to alter earlier than the tip of the present contract with ESPN. That deal runs by the 2025.
The CFP lately introduced the sites of the championship games for the ultimate two seasons of the present 12-year deal.
Hancock mentioned again in February that growth talks would resume later within the yr with a deal with what the playoff can be beginning in 2026.
Since then, the commissioners who opposed the proposed 12-team format have seemingly softened their stances. The commissioners left a June assembly with renewed optimism their variations might be labored out, one of many individuals mentioned.
Final yr, the comparatively new commissioners of the Pac-12, Large Ten and Atlantic Coast Convention pushed again towards an expanded playoff plan that was unveiled in the summertime 2021.
The 12-team mannequin, that included six convention champions and 6 at-large groups, had been labored on for greater than two years by a gaggle of 4 commissioners, together with Greg Sankey of the Southeastern Convention.
Issues about computerized entry for sure conferences, how the Rose Bowl would match into an expanded format and the well being and security of gamers competing in as many as 17 video games had been cited as causes towards the 12-team plan.
Failure to get settlement on growth left Sankey and others pissed off. Increasing the playoff earlier than the tip of the present tv deal has been estimated to be value an extra $450 million in media rights to the conferences.
On the SEC conferences in late Might, Keenum said the presidents wanted the commissioners to supply a plan for the following CFP format no later than June 2023.
Keenum additionally mentioned then that the presidents deliberate to take a extra lively position in growth talks and that he needed them to fulfill once more earlier than the tip of the summer season to “proceed the dialogue.”
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