Big 12 President Claims CFP Expansion Currently On 'Life Support'

The talk of the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams might not be a foregone conclusion just yet.

Back in June, the College Football Playoff’s Board of Managers, a group of 11 university presidents and chancellors, formally gave conference commissioners the green light to proceed with their proposed 12-team Playoff format.

Since that time, the sport has seen a couple of monumental changes. Oklahoma and Texas have announced their intentions to join the SEC when the current Big 12 Grant of Rights expires in 2025. The ACC, Big 10 and Pac 12 have joined together as part of a new alliance.

Now some university presidents want to revisit the discussions regarding playoff expansion. West Virginia's President, E. Gordon Gee, who at one time favored the move to 12 teams, has now changed his mind due to the rapidly changing landscape the sport has seen over the past several weeks.

“I am on the College Football Playoff Board of Directors and I was a strong advocate for the 12-team playoff,” Gee told The DA, a student newspaper at West Virginia. “I am now no longer because I think with this changing environment, we want to keep it very narrow and keep it so there is a lot of opportunity to reconfigure what we’re doing in athletics.”

West Virginia is one of the schools that will be drastically impacted by the move of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC. The move has left the Big 12 as unstable as it's ever been and the future of the conference is very much in doubt.

In fact, with four of the Power-5 conferences set to get new television deals over the next few years, Gee thinks the new proposal is all but dead for the time being.

“I think it is on life support now,” Gee added. “I have one of the votes and I think it nearly needs to be unanimous and I’m not voting for it. I think the Big Ten will not vote for it and the Pac-12 will probably not vote for it either.”

At the time, expansion seemed like the right thing to do, according to Gee. However, with the sport facing so much uncertainty at the moment, now is no longer the time.

“It’s one of those ideas that I think was very good when there was stability," Gee said. "When there's instability, the idea becomes less appropriate.”

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