The College Football Playoff’s board of managers met on Tuesday in Dallas to explore more into the expansion of the playoff.

The CFP board authorized the management committee to begin a summer review phase that will engage other important voices about expanding the playoff from four teams to 12. This will include many people on campuses, such as student-athletes, athletics directors, faculty athletics representatives, coaches, and university presidents and chancellors.

The board will reconvene in September to discuss what they learned in this phase of the expansion process.

“The College Football Playoff (CFP) board of managers today heard a presentation from a working group appointed to look into the possibility of expanding the College Football Playoff,” said Mark Keenum, who is the President at Mississippi State University and serves as the Chairman of the CFP Board of Managers. “It was an excellent presentation and on behalf of the board, I am grateful to the four members who spent two years discussing this important issue and arriving at its recommendation for a 12-team playoff.

“The four-team playoff has been a great success and I’m confident it will remain a success. Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to explore options to make it even better by increasing the number of schools that participate in it.”

Keenum said the opinions of the schools, players and campuses are important, and they want to hear what they have to say about expanding the playoff before they go further with the process. They also want to discuss the proposal with the bowls and their broadcast partner at ESPN and have them consult in the feasibility of the 12-team proposal.

“This too will happen during this summer study period. Having given the management committee the charge to look into expansion, it is our duty to take their good work and ascertain whether it is feasible based on the feedback we receive,” Keenum said. “I caution observers of our process not to rush to conclusions about what this board may decide. The working group has presented us a thorough and thoughtful proposal. There is more work to do, more listening to do and more information needed before we can make a decision.

“We look forward to hearing more and learning more in time for our next meeting in September.”

Members of the CFP board of managers include Eric Barron – Big Ten Conference (President, Penn State); Rodney Bennett – Conference USA (President, Southern Mississippi); Jim Clements – Atlantic Coast Conference (President, Clemson); Gordon Gee – Big 12 Conference (President, West Virginia); Jack Hawkins – Sun Belt Conference (President, Troy); Rev. John Jenkins – President, Notre Dame (Independent); Mark Keenum (chair) – Southeastern Conference (President, Mississippi State); Kirk Schulz – Pacific-12 Conference (President, Washington State); Satish Tripathi – Mid-American Conference (President, Buffalo); Gerald Turner – American Athletic Conference (President, SMU); Keith Whitfield – Mountain West Conference (President, UNLV).

The CFP management committee members are Mike Aresco, commissioner, American Athletic Conference; Bob Bowlsby, commissioner, Big 12 Conference; Keith Gill, commissioner, Sun Belt Conference; Judy MacLeod, commissioner, Conference USA; Jim Phillips, commissioner, Atlantic Coast Conference; Greg Sankey, commissioner, Southeastern Conference; Larry Scott, commissioner, Pacific-12 Conference; Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner, Mid-American Conference; Jack Swarbrick, athletics director, Notre Dame; Craig Thompson, commissioner, Mountain West Conference and Kevin Warren, commissioner, Big Ten Conference.

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