In the not-so-distant future, college football's playoff will expand to 24 teams. And with it, the traditional bowl system will cease to exist, several bowl executives tell On3's Brett McMurphy. A larger playoff means fewer available bowl teams and – voila – fewer bowl games.
"We'll be out of business if we go to 24 teams," said a bowl executive whose game features two Power Four programs. CFP executive director Rich Clark has told bowl officials there's no appetite for holding either of the first two playoff rounds at bowl sites, meaning a 24-team field would jump straight from 12 teams with no in-between step.
Title sponsors are already spooked. It's nearly impossible to lock in a multi-year deal when nobody can guarantee which teams, or even which conferences, will show up in a given bowl down the road. Tony the Tiger and Cheez-It walked away from their deals with the Sun Bowl and Citrus Bowl, respectively.
The bigger problem might be getting teams to show up at all. Notre Dame skipped the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year after missing the 12-team field, and Iowa State and Kansas State bailed on their bowls after coaching changes. "I hate this, but nobody wants to go to bowls anymore," one P4 athletic director said.
Bowl leaders are floating a radical fix: playing games before the season instead of after it. "You have to get creative," one longtime bowl director said.
This is just one fix on the table, and there are more questions than answers at this point. Bowl executives and conference officials are weighing several other options behind closed doors, including standalone preseason games and what it means for G6 teams. On3's Brett McMurphy has more on where those conversations stand, including the blunt marching orders one bowl received from the CFP.
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