Inside College Football Playoff's 24-team expansion: What to know about the new format, schedule and fallout

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Over the last month, a small group of college sports executives hammered out a lucrative new contract with ESPN to expand the College Football Playoff to 24 teams.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua held the most conversations with ESPN's representatives. The negotiations have culminated in a new deal that is expected to provide the leagues with millions in additional revenue, well exceeding the figure needed to recoup the loss of conference championship cash (the total additional revenue is expected to be more than $300 million).

Executives presented the new contract details to the rest of the CFP management committee (Bevacqua and the 10 FBS conference commissioners) on Thursday afternoon during a more than 90-minute meeting that, at times, got spicy. Some commissioners took issue with a couple of things: (1) why weren't more of them involved in the final stretch of negotiations?; and (2) why are leaders not entering the 24-team concept into the open market?

But alas, the new expansion contract is expected to soon be signed. The Big Ten and SEC hold authority over format decisions and they've agreed on the deal. The 24-team playoff would begin next season and run parallel to ESPN's current ownership rights contract with the CFP, through the 2031 postseason.

But what else should you know about college sports' new postseason and its impacts on the industry?

Here are the most pressing questions:

Each power conference champion contractually receives an automatic bid into the playoff, as well as the highest-ranked Group of Six champion.

But let's be real here: the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and SEC champions will not need an automatic bid to make a 24-team field. In reality, there are 23 at-large bids (determined from the CFP committee's rankings) and one automatic spot for a champion from the Sun Belt, American, Conference USA, Mountain West, Pac-12 and MAC.

Here's how the schedule and format will work, according to the latest discussions among conference leaders:

– The top eight teams in the rankings receive a bye into the second round of the playoffs.

– The first round, played on the second week of December and on campus of better seeds, includes eight games pitting Nos. 9-24 (No. 9 hosts No. 24; No. 10 hosts No. 23; and so on).

– The second round, played on the third week of December and on campus of the better seeds, features eight games pitting first-round winners vs. seeds 1-8.

– Brace yourselves for something. There will be weeknight playoff games. Commissioners have discussed holding first- and second-round games on weeknights as to disperse the inventory and avoid the NFL, which begins playing on Saturdays during the third week of December (CFP's new second round).

– The quarterfinals and semifinals will continue to be played in a rotation of the six CFP bowl games (Cotton, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose, Peach, Orange). The quarters will remain on New Year's week and semifinals will remain on the second week of January.

– The most likely destination for the Army-Navy game and the Heisman Trophy ceremony is to shift up a week, from the second weekend in December to the first Saturday in December, which will now be an off-week as conference championship games are eliminated.

Some believe that the other 30-some-odd bowl games will continue to exist in some manner.

Others believe that existence will be incredibly short-lived.

You read in this space back in the spring about an idea that conference leaders and ESPN officials were kicking around: a 10-bowl consortium matching 20 power league teams against one another in a package to be sold on the open market. Five teams from each power conference not making the playoff would meet in the remaining bowls matching the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12, such as the Music City Bowl, Texas Bowl, Gator Bowl, etc.

That idea continues to be discussed. But even high-ranking bowl executives are honest about the situation: Bowl games, already having lost value in a 12-team playoff where whole programs and players are opting out, will be even more irrelevant in a 24-team field.

However, one thing remains true. Over the holiday break, people need something to watch and they often watch bowl games. The top-10 most-watched non-CFP bowls last year averaged a rating of 5.8 million viewers — or more than the average rating of the NBA Finals last year.

All non-CFP bowls last year averaged more than 3 million viewers a game, and though that figure is buoyed by all-power league bowls, some of the Group of Six games earned well over 1 million viewers.

Will those figures change as ESPN and sublicense partner TNT now fill their TV windows with more college playoff games? Perhaps. The 24-team postseason includes 12 additional games (eight new first-rounders and four new second-rounders).

What happens to the other 20-or-so non-power league bowls? Many of those pit Group of Six teams against each other or G6 against power league teams. Most of them (17) are actually owned by ESPN. Simply put, it's up to the network.

No, this time, it's actually not about money.

In fact, the leagues and their member schools really won't get many more additional dollars from the new expansion contract. ESPN reported earlier this week that ESPN is paying around an extra $350 million for the expanded postseason. After reducing that by about $200 million — the lost championship game revenue — the conferences are left to split an additional $150 million or so.

If they divide that using the current CFP distribution formula, Big Ten and SEC schools stand to receive about $2.5 million-$3 million in additional cash annually; $1 million-$1.5 million to ACC and Big 12 schools; and the rest is divided among independents Notre Dame, UConn and G6 programs. (The additional revenue, however, does not include the impact of another set of games on campus — a financial and economic boon for a school and city.)

If not money, what's the expansion to 24 about then?

Access.

Access.

Access.

Plain and simple, coaches and athletic directors want more paths to a national championship, because they are spending so much money on their rosters. Last year was a great example.

Nine-win Texas, likely with a roster spend last year of more than $25 million, missed out on the playoff by three spots. Ten-win Notre Dame, also similar in financial spend last year, missed the postseason by a single spot.

Whether you agree with it or not, schools are investing in their rosters to such a high degree — this year's top rosters are at or more than $40 million — that administrators want more access into the postseason. There is a theory — though it may not prove true — that more access means more stability (i.e. coaches won't get fired so often and so early in a season if more of them can advance to the postseason).

Proponents of expansion believe there is another benefit of moving to 24: regular season scheduling.

Well, for one, commissioners have agreed that power league programs must play 10 games against power conference teams to be eligible for the CFP. That means playing one non-conference game against an opponent from the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC or SEC.

Will this really bring an influx in bigger non-conference matchups? Unlikely. In fact, 57 of the 68 power conference programs have already scheduled one such matchup next year. Eleven teams do need to add a non-conference P4 game.

However, some believe that schools will go beyond just one power league non-conference opponent with the playoff doubling in size. The theory: Because teams can afford to lose as many as four games, they will schedule more difficult, big-brand matchups to increase television value, tickets sales and sponsorships. Think more games like Oklahoma-Michigan, Texas-Ohio State and Notre Dame-Georgia.

That belief isn't held by all. Why would schools want to risk a loss, negatively impact their seeding and potentially even cost themselves a playoff spot?

They wouldn't.

Also, the conferences each now play nine league games. An 11th or even a 12th game against a power conference program leads to team fatigue that may impact future games.

All of that said, conversations continue between the SEC and Big Ten over a long-discussed scheduling agreement. That goes for Notre Dame, too. Bevacqua has engaged in real dialogue with Sankey and Petitti about playing more games against opponents in those two conferences.

The CFP did not have to re-sign with ESPN.

But the network already had invested roughly $150 million-$200 million in ownership of the conference championship games (all but the Big Ten, which belongs to Fox). That means ESPN had a leg up on all other potential bidders. This also created complications. If the CFP decided to sell to another entity — Fox, Amazon, TNT, etc. — it may have meant more difficult negotiations with ESPN over breaking these league championship game contracts. Other complications existed too, such as ESPN's ownership of CFP sponsorship rights.

It all led to CFP leaders deciding to stick with the network, despite some of them being against such a move.

As for the CFP selection committee, the organization is undergoing an evaluation of the committee and its selection process. Are changes to the makeup and size of the committee necessary? The 13-person group, each with term limits of two to three years, is currently made up of six athletic directors, four former coaches, two former players and business executives, and one media member.

Other questions loom for the CFP's evaluation of the process. Should the rankings expand beyond 25 considering the field is expanded to 24? Maybe the new CFP will feature a top-30 or top-35. Should the selection committee's ranking criteria change, too? Should the selection show be reduced or eliminated? These are all things under evaluation.

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