CFP Management Committee Requiring Conferences to Have Eight Members for Automatic Bids

The College Football Playoff Management Committee established a new policy requiring conferences to have at least eight members to be eligible for an automatic bid into the 12-team CFP, according to Yahoo! Sports's Ross Dellenger.

Under the new policy, the two-team Pac-12 will be ineligible for an automatic bid in the 2024 CFP, meaning Oregon State and Washington State can only make it as at-large teams.

The CFP is most likely heading toward a format of five automatic bids for the highest ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids after the Management Committee — made up of the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame — recommended the new format Thursday. The SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 are nearly guaranteed to earn four of the five bids each year, and most likely the four first-round byes, leaving one spot for the highest-ranked Group of Five champion.

Before the dismantling of the Pac-12, the 12-team CFP was a 6+6 format with an even number of automatic and at-large bids. Now, a final vote of approval from the Board of Managers — the school presidents of the Management Committee — can finalize the change of formats.

American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco told The Messenger he planned to vote in favor of the 6+6 format, but would consult with the members of his conference if the other commissioners chose the 5+7 format, "the absolute worst" he would settle for.

"I'm going to stick with 6+6 for now," Aresco said on Oct. 10. "If I'm the lone guy sticking with 6+6 and everybody else decides to go 5+7, I'll have to talk to my membership. But 5+7 is the absolute worst we could go with and we're not favoring that for now, for the next few years. Because it has to be a unanimous vote to change anything. But in the out years, especially, 5+7 is a minimum. I mean, we have to have access."