Important conversations about the future of the College Football Playoff will continue this week in Dallas, where the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua will meet Tuesday.
The commissioners and Bevacqua -- an 11-member group called the CFP management committee -- will discuss whether to change how teams are seeded in the 12-team field this fall, a tweak that would alter which teams earn first-round byes and an automatic $4 million for reaching a quarterfinal round.
While the bulk of the meeting is expected to focus on 2025, debate around automatic qualification for the playoff in 2026 and beyond is at some point inevitable. The playoff appears to be rolling toward a 14-team field and a model that includes four guaranteed spots each for the SEC and Big Ten, two each for the ACC and Big 12, one for the Group of 5 and another at-large, which could account for Notre Dame.
Officials from the Big Ten and SEC met last week in New Orleans and have the bulk of control over the playoff format, starting in 2026. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey declined to say after their meeting what they would like the playoff to look like, but the highly publicized model of automatic qualifiers has already caused angst publicly and privately.
"It would be the beginning of the end of a legitimate national championship," one CFP source said.
With more decisions looming, here's what sources who have knowledge of the discussions are saying about what might happen and when, ahead of this week's meeting in Dallas.
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2025 seeding
SEC-Big Ten reaction
Conference schedules
14 a done deal?
What's next?
