Ohio State AD Calls for CFB Calendar Change at CFP Meetings, Cites 'Disruptions'

Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork is pushing CFP leaders to adjust the college football regular-season schedule.

Bjork brought up the subject during CFP leaders' annual review meeting in Dallas, according to ESPN's Heather Dinich.

One of the meeting's central questions regarded the format of the next CFP, per The Athletic's Chris Vannini. Bjork told Dinich answering that question involved discussing the shape of the regular season.

"We've had so many disruptions over the last five-plus years that I think the time is now to not be reactive, be proactive," he said.  "When we had this setting here with the commissioners, our job was to provide feedback on what was it like to go through the 12-team playoff ... but it all gets impacted by the calendar.

"I felt it was important to lay that out with everyone in the room to say, separate from the CFP process, if we don't fix our calendar as an industry, then we're going to continue to have unintended consequences."

According to Dinich, Bjork told commissioners attending the meeting about Ohio State players' experience competing in a national championship game that took place on Jan. 20, weeks after classes began on Jan. 6.

He said the schedule caused the Buckeyes to run into issues regarding NCAA rules limiting practice time to 20 hours per week during the academic year.

The transfer portal, meanwhile, opened from Dec. 9 to Dec. 28, during which time the Buckeyes entered the first round of the playoff.

Bjork said that moving the fall transfer portal to May "makes the most sense" given new NCAA NIL rules could kick in on July 1 pending approval of the House v. NCAA settlement.

The 2025-26 college football season is set to begin Aug. 23. Part of the upcoming CFP schedule was announced Tuesday, with the quarterfinals set to begin on Dec. 31 and the national championship game scheduled for Jan. 19.

Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported last August that CFP leaders had recently "seriously discussed the prospect of shifting up by a week the entire season."

The goal would be to move the first round of the expanded CFP to the second week of December, according to the report. Those games currently take place in the third week of December, paving the way for the New Year's Eve quarterfinal and the late January title game.

That would involve working out new contracts with both conference championship game venues and broadcast partners, Dellenger noted. Vannini reported that executives from ESPN, which holds CFP broadcast rights through 2031-32, were present at the CFP meetings this week.