Pacific-12 commissioner Larry Scott, who had high hopes, had his proposal of expanding this year’s College Football Playoff field from four teams to eight teams turned down recently by the CFP management committee, according to ESPN.
While the CFP format is widely known to be reviewed annually by commissioners, it was revealed, for the first time, that a Power 5 commissioner rose up consideration for an eight-team format. It can also be said that this consideration of his was due to the impact of COVID-19 on the season as Scott felt it was important to ponder over expanding the playoff that will potentially have more teams and some automatic qualifiers. This could also potentially increase the odds on casino online for the college football seasons.
Speaking to ESPN, CFP executive director Bill Hancock said: “They decided that doing that now would be such a significant change, and come with so many challenges, especially given the timing with the season already underway, that they concluded that the best outcome would be to make no changes in the format. They will continue to discuss the future, which is just good, responsible business practice, although I must say that dealing with COVID has become everyone’s focus now.”
In its six years of history, the CFP has always maintained a four-team format. And if the format was to undergo a change, CFP will have to be backed by 10 FBS commissioners, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick and also the CFP board of managers, which includes 11 university presidents and chancellors. With this large amount of support needed, there is bound to be a conflict of interest between them.
After rejecting the proposal of expanding the CFP, the commissioners confirmed that the procedure to determine the four teams to be involved in the playoff will stay the same despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
Hancock continued: “They trust the judgment of the 13 experts on the committee to make the best decisions, understanding how much more difficult 2020 will be.”
Stanford head coach David Shaw, on the other hand, believes that it’s only a matter of time before the CFP finally undergo its expansion.
Speaking to the reporters, Shaw said: “Whether it’s six or eight, at some point in time it’s going to happen. We all know it; we all believe it. We’re just going to do it very, very slowly and methodically, but it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
The CFP is currently running in its seventh campaign out of the 12-year contract.
Since the creation of CFP in 2014, the Pac-12 only had Oregon and Washington take part in the tournament, with no national titles but a 1-2 record to show for. The Pac-12 has the lowest number of teams to take part in the CFP of the Power 5 conferences with the SEC in the lead with seven teams. That is immediately followed by ACC, which had six teams to participate. While Big Ten and Big 12 have had four teams each and it is well within the expectations of blackjack en ligne that placed impressive odds on them.
THe ACC, SEC and Big 12 have started their college football campaigns while the Big Ten and Pac-12 will begin in October and November respectively having formerly considered not playing due to the concerns brought about by COVID-19.
