As the subsequent spherical of College Football Playoff enlargement talks approaches, there appears to be one major theme that followers proceed to spotlight—the semifinal blowouts on New 12 months’s Eve.
Alabama trounced Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl whereas Georgia overwhelmed Michigan in the Orange Bowl, ensuing in a rematch of the SEC championship for the nationwide title on Jan. 10. It’s the second time in eight years they will meet in the CFP finale. Solely three of the 16 semifinal matchups in CFP historical past have ended up with scoring margins of 10 factors or fewer. Nonetheless, the commissioners are reportedly not centered or involved in regards to the lack of competitiveness in the semifinals.
The ten FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick are set to satisfy on Saturday to proceed discussing the enlargement format, which was evidently divided following the final assembly.
“I do not assume it ought to actually matter,” American Athletic Convention commissioner Mike Aresco advised ESPN. “I feel we’re speaking a few playoff that might be primarily extra inclusive, give extra groups a possibility, and if you happen to gave extra groups a possibility, , just a few of these groups would possibly carry out at a degree higher than the groups that you just select.”
Greg Sankey (SEC commissioner), Bob Bowlsby (Massive 12 commissioner), Craig Thompson (Mountain West commissioner) and Swarbrick proposed the 12-team playoff mannequin in June, which might assure spots to the six highest-ranked convention champions in addition to at-large bids to the subsequent six highest-ranked groups.
Since then, the committee has continued to deliberate, delaying its resolution once more on Wednesday. The primary impediment still exists; there is no such thing as a unanimous consensus on a selected format. Sports activities Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger beforehand reported that they continued to argue over the variety of groups (eight vs. 12) in addition to the function of automated qualifiers (no AQs vs. some AQs vs. AQs for Energy 5 champions).
Given the differing opinions, sources advised ESPN that there are doubts about whether or not they can all agree on an expanded format proper now. Sankey made it publicly recognized following the early December assembly that he was “advantageous” with leaving the playoff format at 4.
“My expectation is that we’ll proceed discussions, and folks will say in the room what they mentioned publicly, which is able to reiterate the truth that we do not have 11 individuals agreeing on any format,” Pac-12 commissioner Georg Kliavkoff told ESPN. “And sadly, that implies that we now have to deal with what the mannequin may seem like after the present time period and hopefully make it retroactive in order that we will increase inside the present time period.”
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