Despite the rash of conference realignment this offseason, it is expected that agreed-upon 12-team College Football Playoff format will maintain its structure at least for the 2024 season, sources told CBS Sports.
The main reason: It would take an unanimous vote of the CFP Management Committee — 10 commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director — to make any change to the 12-team format at this point, sources confirmed.
The 12-team structure in place for 2024 will include see the six highest-ranked conference champions populate the field as automatic qualifiers with six other at-large teams receiving playoff bids.
With the sport in a state of flux and it up in the air how many FBS conferences will even exist once next season rolls around, it would be almost impossible to find consensus on the subject of which conferences deserve AQ status.
The original idea behind guaranteeing spots to the six highest-ranked conference champions was that, most years, not only would the Power Five league champions have access to the playoff but so would at least one champion from a Group of Five conference.
Maintaining the 6+6 structure for 2024 would put off speculation that the number of automatic qualifiers will decrease with the expected loss of the Pac-12. The two other structures that have been informally suggested are 5+7 with five AQs (accounting for the expiration of the Pac-12) and the 12 highest-rated teams — regardless of conference championship status — earning CFP bids.
The committee will gather for a regularly scheduled two-day meeting beginning Tuesday in Chicago. Even if alternate models are proposed at the meeting, it will only take one dissenting vote to keep the agreed-upon structure in place.
American commissioner Mike…
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