College Football Playoff to remain at 4 teams through 2025

The College Football Playoff committee announced on Friday that it will not expand the tournament-style postseason beyond four teams for the next four seasons.

The talks considered expanding the playoff to more teams by as early as 2024. Now, it appears the soonest the playoff could include more than what are deemed as the four best teams would come in the 2026 season, when the current CFP agreement runs out.

“The Board of Managers has accepted a recommendation from the Management Committee to continue the current four-team playoff for the next four years, as called for in the CFP’s original 12-year plan. At the same time, the Board expects the Management Committee to continue its discussions of a new format that would go into effect for the 2026-27 season,” the College Football Playoff committee executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement.

“Even though the outcome did not lead to a recommendation for an early expansion before the end of the current 12-year contract, the discussions have been helpful and informative. I am sure they will serve as a useful guide for the Board of Managers and for the Management Committee as we determine what the Playoff will look like beginning in the 2026-2027 season.”

In January, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff issued a statement of strong support for expansion at any cost.

“It is clear none of the six most-discussed expansion models has unanimous consent, with most having considerable opposition, and every conference other than the Pac-12 has indicated that they would be against at least one of the proposed models,” the new commissioner’s statement said.

The Pac-12 and Big Ten began calling for expansion of the playoff in 2018.

A proposal for a 12-team playoff has been on the table since June. That proposal calls for the six highest ranked conference champions, regardless of conference, to be in the playoff field along with the next six highest ranked teams.

But there have been disagreements over whether conferences should have automatic qualification into an expanded field, and which ones; how bowls will be used as sites in a new system; and athlete health and welfare issues related to more games.

Expansion before end of the contract had been estimated to be worth an extra $450 million dollars for the conferences to split.

Unanimous consensus among the management committee members was needed to alter to the current deal.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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