Expanded 12 team CFP has options
Finally.
Following the 2024 regular season, college football will have a 12 team playoff comprise of the highest ranked six conference champions and six at-large selections.
It is the fairest system because now everyone has a chance to participate among the FBS elite.
But now the format must be approved after the first two years, which are now set...
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, there are two plans being seriously considered.
One has already been publicly vetted and announced.
Give the top 4 seeds byes, and plan four first round games on campus sites in mid December, with the four winners moving to the quarterfinals, with four games being played on New Years Eve and New year's Day at 4 of the Six New Year's bowl slots.
Those bowls are: Rose, Sugar, Fiesta., Peach., Orange and Cotton.
The semfinals will be held at the Cotton and Orange Bowls.
The championship game is scheduled to be played in the Peach Bow on January 20, 2025.
Those sites would rotate among all of the bowl games except the Rose Bowl, which will have a permanent quarterfinal slot; but not participate in the semifinal rotation.
The Rose Bowl also will not be assured of having its 5 p.m Eastern time zone January 1 slot every year. In the years it is moved, the Rose Bowl will fill in the 8:30 Eastern time slot.
The second plan, which could be implemented for the 2026 season if approved, is more radical.
It moves the start of the regular season up until Week 0, which could be the last Saturday in August.
It moves championship week ahead to Thanksgiving week and creates first round games on campus sites in Mid December. with 4 quarterfinal round games, the following week, again on either campus sites or at designated bowl games.
The four winners would then play in a pair of semifinal games on January 1, with the championship game following a week to 10 days later.