Coaches want to expand the College Football Playoff. ADs overwhelmingly favor expansion. Most importantly, fans want it.
And now, as if there was any doubt to begin with, the people in charge of making expansion happened tacitly acknowledged that it's coming.
In a release on Friday summarizing two days of year-end meetings, the College Football Playoff management committee revealed it reviewed 63 (63!!!) models for expansion, ranging from 6-team formats all the way to 16.
The key passage:
In addition, the committee received a briefing from a working group of four of its members charged with considering options for the future format of the playoff for the management committee's review.
Hancock said first and foremost, the working group conveyed to the management committee that it continues to support and believe in the four-team playoff as it is currently constituted.
In its analysis, the working group has reviewed some 63 possibilities for change. These included 6-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 16-team options, each with a variety of different scenarios.
The group informed the management committee that it continues its work and anticipates making a report to the management committee about the future format at an upcoming meeting.
The Management Committee is comprised of the 10 FBS conference commissioners plus Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick. That group serves under the Board of Managers, a group of 10 FBS college presidents (one from each conference), plus Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins.
So, today's announcement is far from a proclamation of when and how the Playoff will expand. The above paragraphs were followed by quotes from CFP executive director Bill Hancock towing the company line about how the Board makes all big-picture decisions and everyone's happy with the current product.
But we know everyone isn't happy with the current product, because if they were they wouldn't spend time exploring other options and they certainly wouldn't have told us about it.
Make no mistake: the Playoff is expanding, it's just a matter of when and by how large.
In the meantime, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.