Feb 18, 2022 - Sports

College Football Playoff keeping 4-team format through 2025

Noah Garfinkel

Lucas Oil Stadium where the CFP championship was held — Lucas Oil Stadium where the Alabama Crimson Tide versus the Georgia Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff National Championship, on January 10, 2022. Photo: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The College Football Playoff will keep its four-team playoff format through at least 2025, CFP executive director Bill Hancock announced Friday.

Driving the news: The CFP management committee, made up of 10 conference commissioners and Notre Dame's athletics director, could not reach the unanimous consensus needed to expand the tournament before the end of its 12-year contract, which means expansion will have to wait until the 2026 season.

Catch up quick: A 12-team expansion plan was proposed to the CFP and made public in June, ESPN notes.

But Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips took a strong public stance against the plan, saying that now is "not the right time for expansion," citing other problems with Division I collegiate athletics.

What they're saying: "Even though the outcome did not lead to a recommendation for an early expansion before the end of the current 12-year contract, the discussions have been helpful and informative," Hancock said in a statement.

"I thank the working group for its hard work that resulted in the 12-team proposal, and the Management Committee for its thorough and diligent job reviewing it and other possible expansion ideas," he added.

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College Football Playoff keeping 4-team format through 2025

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