The College Football Playoff and ESPN are giving conferences nearly eight more weeks to figure out what the next version of the postseason tournament will look like.
The CFP on Monday announced the extension of the deadline from Dec. 1 to Jan. 23 with the clear hope that the Southeastern and Big Ten Conferences can come to some sort of agreement on their vastly differing proposals.
Next season marks the beginning of a six-year, $7.8 billion deal that ESPN made to televise the CFP games. The deal brings with it an opportunity to expand the postseason from the current 12-team format.
Under provisions that established the playoff, the SEC and Big Ten will decide on its next iteration, but they are far apart.
The SEC has been pushing for a bracket heavy with at-large berths chosen by a selection committee. Over the summer, a popular idea to come out of the league's meetings awarded automatic bids to five teams and made the other 11 at-large. Earlier this season, commissioner Greg Sankey said he has been “ amazingly consistent " that he is not a fan of automatic qualifiers.
Most other conferences, including the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast, are in favor of this sort of format.
But the Big Ten has advocated for expanding the playoffs to as many as 28 teams, with as many as seven automatic bids going to its own conference and the SEC. That's a format that would likely replace league title games with a round of play-in contests for the automatic berths and turn the postseason into a longer, NFL-style affair.
If the conferences cannot agree on a new format, they would stick with the 12-team bracket in place this year, in which five conference champions get auto bids and seven more make it as at-large teams.
The new deadline gives the parties four days after this year's playoff concludes to reach an agreement.
“While no change to the current format is definite, this extension will allow the Management Committee additional time to evaluate the second year of the expanded playoff and ensure any potential modifications are carefully considered, fully vetted, and in the best interests of student-athletes, schools, and fans," said the CFP's executive director, Rich Clark.
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