{"id":415791,"date":"2026-01-18T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415791\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:36:11","slug":"college-football-playoff-expansion-stalemate-remains-as-deadline-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415791\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Playoff expansion stalemate remains as deadline looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MIAMI, Fla. \u2014 Following the College Football Playoff management committee\u2019s meeting Sunday, sources tell On3\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/user\/chris-low\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Low<\/a> that the SEC would prefer to stick with the 12-team format rather than expand to 24 teams. The Big Ten wants a 24-team model, while the SEC \u2013 and the other eight conferences, along with Notre Dame \u2013 want a 16-team playoff. <\/p>\n<p>Barring an unprecedented move, the expectation is the 12-team model will remain intact for the 2026 season, with a Friday, Jan. 23 deadline looming for expansion. Earlier this week, a Big Ten source told On3\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/user\/brett-mcmurphy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brett McMurphy<\/a> that they would agree to the 16-team model in 2026 if there was a commitment to expand to 24 teams a few years later.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>\u201cWe probably can get there if there is an actual signed agreement,\u201d the source said. \u201cNot an agreement to agree.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If an expansion agreement is not in place by Friday, ESPN officials will not grant another extension of the deadline, CFP director Rich Clark said. ESPN, the CFP\u2019s broadcast partner through 2032, previously granted executives an extended deadline from Dec. 1 to Jan. 23. <\/p>\n<p>Clark said that no formal management committee meeting has been set for this week, with the deadline looming. If no expansion decision is made, the 12-team format would stay for the 2026 season. The deadline for expansion in 2027 would be Dec. 1, 2026. <\/p>\n<p>As commissioners exited the management committee meeting on Sunday at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, reactions were muted. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said that there was \u201cstill more work to do\u201d for CFP expansion to be reached. <\/p>\n<p>Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said there\u2019s still time until the deadline, and American Athletic Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti said discussions were ongoing around College Football Playoff expansion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re only in Year 2 of our 12-team format, so I reminded my colleagues that from when we had the very first notion of going beyond just a four-team playoff to actually having a 12-team playoff, it took five years,\u201d CFP Board chair and Mississippi State president Mark Keenum said. \u201c\u2026 The fact that we\u2019re having conversations is a good thing, but there are a lot of things to weigh in on this. All the presidents of all the conferences are speaking through their commissioners, and they\u2019re negotiating this. So we\u2019ll see where it plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI, Fla. \u2014 Following the College Football Playoff management committee\u2019s meeting Sunday, sources tell On3\u2019s Chris Low that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-415791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}