Source: Rose Bowl OK’s deal for early expansion
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The last remaining obstacle to expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in the 2024 and 2025 seasons has been cleared.
A source told ESPN on Wednesday night that the Rose Bowl has agreed to terms that will pave the way for the College Football Playoff to expand in the final two seasons of the current contract — 2024 and 2025.
Any more steps toward an announcement are a formality, as the formal announcement of the playoff expansion beginning in 2024 is expected to imminent.
In early September, the College Football Playoff Board of Managers voted to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams starting in 2026.
With nearly $450 million dollars at stake in the final two years of the current contract, the path toward expanding in those two seasons has been fraught with complications.
But after months of haggling, getting the Rose Bowl on board loomed as the final step. The Rose Bowl needed to amend their contract as the other five co-called “contract bowls” needed to do in order to accommodate the new system. Ultimately, the Rose Bowl’s cooperation loomed as the final barrier.
A source told ESPN’s Heather Dinich earlier this week that the Rose Bowl was essentially given an ultimatum this week to agree to terms or risk being shut out of the next television contract, which begins in 2026.
