CFP Executive Director: There's a 'Consensus' Expansion Would Be Good for CFB

The College Football Playoff management committee has not come to a final agreement about expanding the postseason to include more teams. However, it certainly sounds like the committee made progress in discussions over the last several days. 

"There is a consensus that expansion would be good for college football," CFP executive director Bill Hancock said, according to The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach. "It's just a matter of how."

The current College Football Playoff model includes four teams, which are determined and seeded by a 13-member committee. It has been in operation since 2014. 

The CFP is currently in the eighth year of a 12-year contract that runs through 2025. However, the format could be changed as soon as 2023, according to ESPN's Heather Dinich.

The CFP management committee proposed an expanded 12-team postseason model that does not include guarantees for conference champions. The new bracket would consist of the six highest-ranked conference champions and the six remaining highest-ranked teams.

The top four conference champions would have a first-round bye, while the other eight teams would play the opening round on the higher seed's campus.

However, a letter was sent to college football leaders last month and requested any future playoff games in an expanded model be played at a neutral site instead of on college campuses to keep things fair. 

"To exclude Bowl games from any round of an expanded playoff would be harmful to Bowl Season, individual Bowls and their host communities, and post-season college football in general," the letter said. 

An eight-team model has also been discussed, but the CFP expansion talks have focused mainly on the 12-team model, per Auerbach, who breaks down why certain leaders like the eight-team model instead: 

"The leaders who support an eight-team model mostly do so because they want to emphasize the value of a conference championship. They like the idea of all Power 5 conference champions being guaranteed access to the Playoff, with a couple of at-large spots beyond that. They like that the maximum number of games played in a season with an eight-team bracket is 16, not 17 (although it is unlikely many teams would get to 17 in a 12-team format)."

Considering the CFP has been active since 2014, it's no surprise a decision on expansion is taking so long. However, it's a good sign progress is being made.