With CFP expansion still murky, college football’s bowl system braces for another year of limbo – The Athletic – The New York Times

College Football
Week 12
After an all-Big 12 Alamo Bowl between BYU and Colorado, more awkward bowl matchups could be in store this year and next. Ronald Cortes / Getty Images
Uncertainty surrounding the College Football Playoff’s structure for 2026 and beyond has filtered down to the bowl games outside the Playoff.
The bowls’ contractual ties to specific conferences, which inform which teams receive invitations to each game, expire after this season. Usually, new deals are completed at least a year, if not 18 months, ahead of the final contract year. But with CFP expansion talks approaching a Dec. 1 deadline to make changes for 2026, bowl executives have one eye on their upcoming matchups and another on the years ahead.
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“You want to make sure you’re in touch with all the conferences about what’s going on and what’s the future look like,” said Derrick Fox, executive director of the San Antonio-based Alamo Bowl. “The pregnant pause is a good analogy, because the CFP has to make a decision first. So, we wait until that decision is made, and then I think people will be ready to go certainly thereafter.”
The College Football Playoff has a Dec. 1 deadline to inform ESPN whether and by what format it will expand beyond 12 teams next season. The SEC and Big Ten have the authority to choose the system, but they are far apart in how to structure it. The Big Ten prefers an access-based model in which it and the SEC receive four automatic bids, the Big 12 and ACC receive two, the top Group of 6 conference champion earns one spot and a committee selects the final three teams. The SEC favors extending the current tournament setup, with the top five conference champions and the remaining 11 teams selected by a selection committee.
If the sides cannot agree, it’s likely the CFP will remain as is for the 2026-27 season. That leaves the bowls outside the CFP in flux, too.
“The easiest thing to do would be to say, ‘Let’s just punt maybe for 12 months until we figure this out,” said Steve Hogan, CEO of the Citrus and Pop-Tarts bowls, which are held in Orlando, Fla. “And I think that’s what I would expect is going to happen.”
“If there’s a short-term decision made, then the rest of the bowl system may be forced to also make a short-term decision,” said Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli. “But if the CFP were to settle in in a format that they plan on sticking with for some time, then I think everybody involved can do a little bit more long-range planning.”
For some bowls, another year of the status quo wouldn’t change anything. The Citrus Bowl began a relationship with the Big Ten and SEC in 1992 through which it has the top choice of teams from both leagues beyond the CFP, and that’s likely to continue. The Alamo Bowl is in a different spot. It currently owns the top selection from the Big 12 and the Pac-12 legacy members pool outside of the CFP. The Pac-12 legacy pool includes four teams from the Big Ten, four from the Big 12, two from the ACC and two in the reconstructed Pac-12.
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Last year, the Alamo Bowl selected two current Big 12 teams in BYU and former Pac-12 member Colorado. It could happen again this year and, if the current contracts hold for another year, in 2026-27.
“We do have a little bit of a unique situation,” Fox said. “Last year people that were concerned about Colorado-BYU, an all-Big 12 game. Does that make any sense? Lo and behold, we had our most-watched game ever and a sellout crowd. So, it worked pretty well from that perspective.”
The all-Big 12 Alamo Bowl had a few factors working in its favor last year, as BYU and Colorado had not met during the regular season. The Buffaloes also had the Heisman Trophy winner in Travis Hunter, who played in the game, plus a superstar head coach in Deion Sanders. Plus, BYU has one of the sport’s most loyal fan bases, and the Cougars were playing in the Alamo Bowl for the first time. It drew 8 million viewers, which ranked 26th among all college football broadcasts last season. None of those variables could be in play again this year or next.
Other bowls within the Pac-12 legacy tree face similar situations and would prefer a change sooner than later. The Vegas Bowl could have a Big Ten vs. Big Ten matchup. The Holiday and Sun bowls could host a pair of ACC teams. Others on the outside of the pool, like Phoenix’s Rate Bowl, would love to have a former Pac-12 team, but it’s currently not allowed. The Rate Bowl has a relationship with the Big 12 and Big Ten, but it cannot select a former Pac-12 team from either league — that means no Arizona or Arizona State.
Future uncertainty and current revenue issues have led some bowls to get creative. Consecutive years of canceled games left the Holiday Bowl with a deficit of $1.44 million, according to its most recent tax return. The bowl, spearheaded by Sports San Diego CEO Mark Neville, explored this summer the possibility of moving the game to Saudi Arabia.
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“For something that would be this big a change for our game, it takes a lot of different pieces to come together, and the puzzle didn’t come together for it,” Neville told The Athletic. “We’re always thinking outside the box with the Holiday Bowl. We want to keep it fresh, we want to keep it exciting, so we’re always looking outside the box. There were a lot of other ideas we explored as well, and going there was just one of them.”
One idea that was circulated is for bowls to pool their bids to ensure a variety of matchups, but that is unlikely to gain full-scale implementation anytime soon.
“Most bowls enjoy having two conference partners that they can market in brand throughout the year,” Carparelli said. “I think most conferences enjoy knowing where their teams are going to go. Certainly, the conferences with the most leverage can decide which bowls they’d like to participate in, while others are fortunate to have opportunities that are available.”
Expect some movement once new contracts are written for either next season or 2027. The Big 12 (and the Southwest Conference before it) has long anchored the Alamo Bowl, with the Big Ten and Pac-12 as its primary competition. Now with former Big 12 teams Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma in the SEC, that league and the Big Ten could be interested in negotiations with Alamo Bowl officials — but not until the CFP finalizes its decision.
“Right now, it’s just a lot of what-ifs,” Fox said. “That’s why we’re having the conversations with everybody. Have we made any decisions? No, because we can’t. And in fairness to the conferences, they’re like, we don’t even know what we can really sell you.”
An expanded CFP would limit the high-end inventory for bowls like the Citrus, Alamo and other top-tier non-CFP bowls. But conference expansion also creates opportunities for different teams to cycle through those communities, which could help maintain bowl season’s high television ratings. Both the Pop-Tarts Bowl (Iowa State-Miami) and the Tampa-based ReliaQuest Bowl (Michigan-Alabama) topped 6.5 million viewers last December. Fresh lineup changes, whether they come in 2026 or ’27, could keep alive what has become college football’s vibrant assortment of consolation prizes, no matter the next CFP format.
“You look at last year,” Hogan said. “The ratings are phenomenal, as good as they’ve been in college football’s bowl season after what was an expanded Playoff. Everybody thought, ‘Oh, man, the bowls are going to not have any viewership,’ and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I think that college football’s postseason will be just as strong, if not stronger, moving forward.”
The Athletic‘s Stewart Mandel contributed reporting.
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Scott Dochterman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering national college football and the Big Ten. He previously covered Iowa athletics for the Cedar Rapids Gazette and Land of 10.

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