“The luxury of time”

Bill Hancock ain’t worried about playoff expansion.

“We have time, because if the event is going to change before the end of the term, the end of the 12 years, we have three or four months,” Hancock said. “If it’s going to change in Year 13, then we have a couple of years.”

The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met for about two hours in a hotel conference room near the Big Ten headquarters, and the CFP’s board of managers, which is comprised of the 11 presidents and chancellors who have the power to change the playoff, joined them via video conference for the second half of the meeting.

For once, he’s probably right.  There’s simply too much money in a 12-team format for them to walk away, as much as I wish they would.

At least it sounds like there’s some bad news for Mickey.

… They also discussed media rights, but Hancock said ESPN television executives were not a part of Tuesday’s discussions.

“The format will be done before television,” Hancock said.

If the playoff format were to change before then, ESPN would have first rights to any new games. If college football’s power brokers are determined to take the playoff to multiple media entities as a way of maximizing revenue, it would need to wait until after 2025 or work out an arrangement with ESPN.

“In last week’s meeting, it became clear for the first time that all 11 members of the management committee now believe we have to have multiple distributors of our postseason content,” one source with knowledge of the discussions said.

My only question is what happens if (when?) ESPN outbids everyone else at the table for the whole enchilada.  Would these people really take less money just to keep someone like Fox in play?  Color me skeptical.