The College Football Playoff will grow to a 12-team tournament. The Board of Managers of the College Football Playoff voted Friday to expand the playoff field to 12 teams, with the goal of implementing the larger format as soon as possible.

The new tournament should begin as early as the 2024 college season and has been set a 2026 deadline. 

“This was a very historic day for college football,” said Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, the chairman of the CFP’s Board of Managers. Earlier, only four teams participated in the College Football Playoffs. 

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The original 12-team proposal, which calls for the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large picks — as decided by a selection committee — was approved unanimously by the board’s 11 university leaders.

The top four seeds would be conference champions and receive first-round byes. The first-round games would take place on campuses, with the rest taking place at bowl sites.

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The CFP’s 12-year agreement with ESPN expires before the 2026 season and hence it would like that the newly formatted tournament to begin prior to the deal ending so that it could be broadcasted across households in the USA.

The following measures were approved by the board of CFP in Friday’s meeting: –

Rankings system: The CFP Selection Committee will continue to determine weekly rankings based on evaluable criteria.

Bracket placement: The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded 1-4 and will receive first-round byes; the four highest remaining seeds will host lower seeds at a later date.

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Bowl relationship: Quarterfinal and semifinal games will be played at rotating bowl sites, pending agreement; national championship games will continue to be played at neutral sites; existing conference relationships with bowls will be considered for game placements.

When this 12-team bracket was first introduced in June 2021, it received a positive response from a CFP subcommittee comprised of the Football Bowl Subdivision commissioners. FBS is the highest level of college football in the USA. commissioners.