DALLAS -- Leaders of the College Football Playoff won't make any decisions about what the sport's postseason format will look like in 2026 and beyond until after a national champion has been crowned in the inaugural season of a 12-team field, executive director Rich Clark told ESPN on Wednesday.
The playoff will expand from four to 12 teams for each of the next two seasons, with the five highest-ranked conference champions joining the next seven highest-ranked teams in the field. The current, 12-year CFP contract expires following the 2025 season.
In March, the CFP and ESPN agreed to a new six-year, $7.8 billion contract that ensures the network will remain the sole media rights holder of the playoff through the 2031-32 season. The playoff format for that new contract, though, is uncertain beyond the guarantee it will continue to be at least a 12-team field.
"We're going to wait until after the season, after the playoff, the champ game in fact," said Clark, who was at SEC media days after replacing retired executive director Bill Hancock in June.
The CFP's management committee, which is comprised of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, will meet in-person in September, again at its annual meeting at the national championship game in January and during its annual spring meeting in April.
"In the January [meeting], we're going to start talking about things in earnest," Clark said. "Then hopefully we get things on the table, we've had a chance to look at them, and in the April one we have to start making decisions, if there's anything to decide."
Clark, who retired from his post as the superintendent of the Air Force Academy on May 31, said the CFP is willing to make adjustments if needed after watching the new format unfold this fall.
"In the military, you plan, you execute, you step back after execution, you debrief, and then you go again," he said. "That's how you get better. But each time you go, you have to go full-in. You can't go into it thinking, 'Oh, this is just a test run.' No it's not a test run. This is the run.
"This is decades we're going to be doing this. We have to have the long game in mind on this and really be ready to adjust and make ourselves better over the years."
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was a member of the group that comprised the original 12-team model first unveiled in June 2021, told ESPN he was in favor of having some patience before making any major decisions.
"I was part of the work on 12, I think it was well-reasoned, and I don't think you just jump to 14 [teams in the playoff], point one" Sankey said. "Point two, if we're going to go through 12, aren't we better off seeing how that works, who's involved, who's not involved and then make a decision? For us, locally, I think we benefit for our scheduling decisions to see a single-division, 16-team league play, how the playoff makes decisions and then we'll come back to our '26 schedule and beyond. Using as many data points -- which is a COVID lesson -- by using time is really well-informed."
The focus of the CFP has been executing this year's drastic change as seamlessly as possible. Clark said his concentration has been on the first-round games, which will take place on the campus of the higher seed.
He said the CFP has talked to all 134 FBS teams to make sure "they're ready to do this if it comes."
"I want to see the first round go without a hitch," he said. "I think we're on a good path for that to happen, but helping those teams -- the teams that get selected 5-8 -- that they have that spectacular home game and it's great, no issues and they're able to advance their team to the next round. ... That's the one piece that we haven't done before."
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