College Football Playoff committee meets about moving up timeline for expanded 12-team playoff

IRVING, Texas — The College Football Playoff management committee on Thursday began working towards implementing a 12-team playoff as early as the 2024 season, but a sense of progress and congeniality was also tempered by a hastened timeline they hope to meet this fall.

«There's a focus on the timetable,» said American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco. «Our minds are very concentrated because we know we've got to get this done if it's going to happen. And I think the goal would be to make it happen, but who knows.»

The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick gathered in a small meeting room at the DFW airport for about four and a half hours, their first discussions since the 11 presidents and chancellors who control the playoff voted unanimously last week in favor of expanding the field to 12 teams in 2026. The CFP's board of managers strongly urged the commissioners, who could not agree on a format since the original proposal was announced in June 2021, to get it done sooner if possible.

«I even feel better coming out of the meeting that I did going into it, and I was positive going into the meeting,» said Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, «but we have a lot of experienced people and have common goals and it was a very productive meeting. So I'm very pleased where we are and we have a lot of work to do, though. We have a lot to get done.»

CFP executive director Bill Hancock said that while there's not an exact deadline, they hope to have an answer this fall. The current contract runs through the 2025 season, and the CFP in mid-August announced Atlanta will host the national championship game in 2025, followed by Miami in January 2026.

While CFP officials have laid out the