CFP chairman reveals biggest obstacles in vote for expansion

On Friday, the College Football Playoff announced it would not be changing its format anytime soon, keeping the four team playoff through the 2025 season. ESPN will continue to have the right to broadcast the games before a new deal and possible format is decided on for the 2026 season.

“I’m disappointed,” Mark Keenum, Mississippi State President and Chairman of the College Football Playoff Board of Managers said. “We [the presidents] couldn’t work it out either.”

Keenum suggests that the biggest obstacle in expansion is the fact that some conferences, namely the B1G, wanting automatic qualifiers for Power Five champions. Despite representing a Power Five conference (Mississippi State, SEC), Keenum called that proposal unfair. “That is a real sticking point. I don’t know how we get it resolved.”

Keenum noted three obstacles prevented expansion: Eight vs. 12 teams, including five automatic qualifiers, the number of extra games that would need to be played, and the Rose Bowl. “We’ve got a bowl with a keen interest in preserving their date and time. That’s part of the negotiating package with a media provider. Does that add value or cost value for CFP?”

If talks of playoff expansion to an eight or a 12-team model over the next few seasons were to have been agreed upon, the Rose Bowl wants in on the love that the Orange and Sugar Bowl have at the moment — they want to be a part of the playoffs. Pac-12 commissioner George Kilavkoff addressed the Rose Bowl’s potential future relationship with the CFP last month.

“What we’ve said is if we go to a format where the six New Year’s Eve bowl games are playing on a rotating three year basis: quarterfinal, quarterfinal semifinal — those quarterfinals, either an eight-team or a 12-team model would fall during the New Year’s weekend, and presumably the Rose Bowl, if it was hosting a quarterfinal win hosted in its traditional time,” Kliavkoff said.

While the new vote stifles the Rose Bowl’s hopes of joining the playoff rotation, Klivakoff expressed his disappointment in the vote. He said he, along with the nine other commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who will continue to work toward finding a new format for the College Football Playoff.

“I share the disappointment felt by many college football fans today,” Klivakoff said via Twitter. “I look forward to working collaboratively with other Commissioners to deliver a football playoff format that is more inclusive and balanced.”