Commissioners 'Made Progress' on Expanded 2024 CFP, But 'Not Finished'

Expanding the College Football Playoff ahead of the 2024 season remains a topic of discussion but still faces some hurdles.

"They made progress, but they’re not finished," CFP executive director Bill Hancock said, per The Athletic's Chris Vannini and Nicole Auerbach. "It is true that time is not on our side, but we haven’t given ourselves a deadline."

In September, the CFP board of managers voted in favor of bringing the playoff field to 12 teams by 2026. As Hancock's comments alluded to, that timeline could be accelerated since the concept has already been agreed to in principle.

Per Vannini and Auerbach, lining up the general logistics of a 12-team playoff are atop the board's list of priorities.

In addition to staging first-round games at campus sites depending on seeding, administrators are aiming to avoid any overlap with CFP contests:

"Commissioners have solicited feedback from administrators on their campuses about hosting first-round games, which gets trickier in mid-December because of final exams and campuses closing for winter break. In addition, there would not be much lead time on planning those games, with first-round matchups being played less than two weeks after the Sunday when the field is released."

Navigating around the NFL schedule presents a challenge as well. As popular as college football might be, going up against NFL games would potentially be a ratings disaster for the playoff.

"Some of it is a combination of the NFL season has expanded," Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said, per CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd. "We're discussing expanding our playoff. There are more games. There is more inventory."

There isn't a firm deadline to figure everything out before the CFP board begins shifting its focus toward the 2025 season. While that still leaves some room for optimism, it's clear the finish line remains far into the distance.

Dodd said he asked one member of the CFP committee how long in the offing a 12-team playoff might be.

"About 14 months," the official said.