College soccer expands to 12 teams

The College Football Playoff Board of Directors voted Friday to expand the CFP to 12 teams in 2026, but encourages the sport’s commissioners to try to implement it as early as 2024.

The 11 presidents and chancellors of the CFP Board of Directors approved the original 12-team model, consisting of the six top-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams. The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick will meet next week in Dallas to hammer out the details.

The biggest obstacle to the 12-team model was specific objections from the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12. After this summer’s surprising realignment, with USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten and signing a historic television deal, these leagues’ issues began to fade into the background.

The 12-team model is expected to have the same basic architecture as the Playoff model worked out by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Swarbrick, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson and former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

That plan had been publicly floated in June 2021 and ultimately stalled due to conference politics. In February, the CFP announced it would not extend the current contract, which expires after the 2025 season.

The changing landscape of college sports seemed to change some opinions. And two weeks ago, the CFP Board of Directors held an unannounced call where they discussed expansion and the possibility of a 12-team playoff starting in the middle of the current contract structure.

It could take weeks or months to organize a 12-team playoff for 2024 or 2025. Although CFP officials have outlined the obstacles to such a sudden change (venues, hotels and TV contracts), money can be a powerful incentive for change.