Heather DinichESPN Senior Writer August 30, 2023, 6:44pm ET5 minutes read
IRVING, Texas – For the first time since the Pac-12’s realignment, the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met Wednesday to discuss the future of the College Football Playoff in a meeting billed as ” was described warmly, but against the background of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the league leaders.
If the Pac-12 disbands in 2024, as many expect, the CFP could change its selection of teams in the expanded 12-team format, which also begins in 2024. The current model includes the six highest-ranked conference champions plus the next six highest-ranked teams, allowing for five Power 5 conference champions and one Group of 5 champion. However, if the Pac-12 does not exist, the CFP is considering changing the criteria to the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams. The group also discussed the option of 12 large teams.
No major decisions were made Wednesday, however, as the group is still waiting to see what happens with the four remaining Pac-12 teams — Cal, Stanford, Washington State and Oregon State. The ACC is expected to decide soon on the possible addition of Cal, Stanford and SMU.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips was expected to attend in person, but told ESPN he did not due to travel issues in Charlotte, North Carolina caused by Hurricane Idalia. According to CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock, he attended the five-hour meeting via video conference and did not inform the room about a possible expansion of the conference.
“As far as conference realignment goes, we’ll have to wait and see,” Hancock said. “We need to wait for the dust to settle before making any decisions about how this might impact the CFP. The fact is, we just don’t know yet. Nobody knows how the realignment of the conference will end, and that too. It would simply be premature to make any decisions on this matter.
Mike Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, said his conference will learn “fairly soon” whether SMU will join the ACC and that his league has “contingency plans.”
“We’re thinking about how to deal with it,” he said. “We had a big meeting this morning with our ADs and presidents. But we have a great relationship with SMU.”
Aresco said the Power 5 label is “all about the branding.”
“When we heard Stanford and Cal had nowhere to go, that’s not true,” he said. … I understand the issue of money, it’s based on a TV deal, but the guys are willing to spend practically nothing because they feel like they need that branding. We’re seeing how that plays out now.”
Regardless of what happens with the realignment, Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said the principle of honoring conference champions should remain important going forward.
“I think that’s a core principle of what we do and what we built into it,” he said. “I think it’s important that it stays that way as we move forward. Depending on the number of conferences we have, I think there can be legitimate conversations about the number of champions set here as well as the number of total attendees. But for me you start with the basic principle and I think it’s important that we keep that. I felt good coming out of that conversation. I didn’t use any hands, I just had a good feeling about that conversation.”
It was the first time Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was in the same room with his colleagues since Oregon and Washington decided to join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado decided to join to join the Big 12. Kliavkoff has not spoken publicly since then and declined to comment on the realignment as he rushed past reporters in the lobby of a meeting room at the DFW Grand Hyatt.
As he quickly walked away, Kliavkoff smiled and said, “It was nice” to be in the room with everyone again and “nice to focus on everything in the future.”
When asked about his future, Kliavkoff said: “I’m focused on this year. I’m just focused on us winning a national championship.”
Wednesday’s CFP Management Committee meeting was originally scheduled to address the nitty-gritty details surrounding expanding the field to 12 teams in time for next season. While the conference’s recent realignment obviously added another layer to the discussions, the focus remained on logistics. The group decided to continue to provide each of the 125 players’ families a $3,000 scholarship to travel to all playoff games. They are also working to create a company to help manage housing on all campuses for first-round games.
“This meeting was scheduled months ago because each of us knows we have a lot of work to do to reach 12 teams in 2024,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who chaired the meeting. “We did that. … Have we talked about how things around us have changed? Secure. Did that dominate the meeting? I don’t think it was like that. Everyone was friendly. It’s not the first time we’ve attended a conference. “Changes.”
While starting the season in Week Zero has been a topic of discussion in the past, it hasn’t gained much traction and wasn’t discussed on Wednesday. But after recently returning from Dublin, Ireland, where Notre Dame opened the season against Navy in Week 0, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick sincerely supported the idea of such a future, saying he thought Week 0 was ” really good for the sport.”
“I understand the difficulties, but at least it always creates a year with two breaks, and that is good for the health of the student-athletes,” Swarbrick said. “At the moment we get a two-year bye every seven years. … When you’re in the locker room and you see what they look like in Games 9 and 10, a second bye is very helpful.”
The CFP Administrative Committee will meet again in September at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois, and hopes to have more answers on the realignment by then.
“I think we need to provide some clarity, and we don’t have full clarity at the moment,” Sankey said. “…I’d like to see what the circumstances are like sometime.”