The College Football Playoff board of managers met Sunday to discuss potential changes to the 12-team tournament’s format.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the meeting ended without any decision being reached. Dellenger reported that CFP chair Mark Keenum said that conference commissioners are in the beginning stages of discussing format changes.
Any alternations would require unanimous approval from the CFP board of managers, which consists of 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua.
“Remember, it’s one year, and so I don’t think anyone wants to overreact,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told The Athletic before the meeting. “But you have to obviously use the information you have from this first year to plan for the future.”
Dellenger reported that any changes are unlikely to be made for the 2025-26 season.
Under the current format, the five highest-rated conference champions receive automatic bids to the playoff with the top four champions earning a first-round bye. In 2024, the four byes went to No. 1 Oregon (Big Ten), No. 2 Georgia (SEC), No. 3 Boise State (Mountain West) and No. 4 Arizona State (Big 12).
The format received some criticism after No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Penn State, the SEC and Big 10 runners-up, received more favorable draws in the quarterfinals than Oregon and Georgia. Texas and Penn State were heavy favorites over Arizona State and Boise State, respectively, while the Ducks (No. 8 Ohio State) and Bulldogs (No. 7 Notre Dame) were small underdogs in their quarterfinal matchups.
All four bye teams lost in the quarterfinals. Notre Dame and Ohio State are set to face off in Monday’s CFP championship game.
After the initial bracket reveal, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez defended the format that awarded byes to Boise State and Arizona State — two of the three lowest-ranked teams in the field.
“So my first starting place is, look, it’s too soon,” Nevarez said in December of potentially changing the format. “I understand what happened, and certainly we were a beneficiary this year, and I’m open to talking about that. But a sample size of one year seems small. However, open to the conversation. OK, if we are tweaking, what would it look like?”
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark expressed similar feelings in a recent interview with Dellenger.
“I’m open to a healthy discussion on the topic,” Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “I certainly have a point of view that will be expressed in the room, but I do not have the appetite to give up any financial reward that comes with a bye.”
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