The College Football Playoff Board of Managers has concluded its annual meeting and, as expected, there will be no further dialogue on expanding the format from the current four-team playoff.
“It is our unanimous agreement that the Playoff has been a tremendous success for students, fans, and universities,” Mark Keenum said in a statement released on Monday afternoon. “We are very proud of it. Fans love to watch it and we look forward to its continued success.”
Keenum serves as the chairman of the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. The board is obviously pleased with the current state of the playoff and for the time being the “continued success” of the championship tournament will not include expansion.
As far as expanding the number of teams in the Playoff, it’s way too soon – much too soon – to know if that is even a possibility. It’s fair to say the speculation about expansion has outdistanced the reality of what the commissioners and the presidents have discussed. If a decision were to be made down the road, the Presidents would be the ones to make it and we are not there.
Mark Keenum – Chairman of the College Football Playoff Board of Managers
Currently, the College Football Playoff matches the No. 1 seed vs. No. 4, and No. 2 vs. No. 3 in semifinal games that rotate annually among six bowl games – the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl.
This statement isn’t to say that expansion talk is dead. Rather, it hasn’t started yet. Like most things in college and professional athletics, the final work is going to be dollars. The better the position of leverage the more opportunity the group has to capitalize on it. Right now they aren’t deep enough into their contract to make squeeze extra dollars out of it.
“At some point down the road, as part of our regular review of all matters pertaining to the Playoff, the management committee will meet, and it will consider all aspects of the Playoff, as it routinely does,” Keenum said. “When that discussion happens, I advise observers not to read too much into it. We have a twelve-year contract we are very happy with. It is always appropriate to ask the right questions and to examine every issue to be sure we have things right. We are very satisfied with the Playoff and look forward to its continued success.”
Some players and coaches will continue to push the expansion of the playoff but the ultimate voice in the matter belongs to the fan. As long as the fans continue to make it an issue it will be a part of the annual discussion.