Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports writes about the creation of the 12-team playoff that was designed by Jack Swarbrick, Bob Bowlsby, Greg Sankey and Craig Thompson.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Deep within Jack Swarbrick’s home, down a flight of stairs, across a basement floor and inside a small closet, the original relics of the expanded College Football Playoff format exist.
These note-filled papers are artifacts of an 18-month-long endeavor to create the largest and most significant postseason concept in college football history. They are kept safe and secret here, buried inside a brown box, only to be unearthed as evidence of a process that, perhaps, changed the sport forever.
“Some of them are in a landfill somewhere,” Swarbrick says, “but the ones I thought would be useful if I ever wrote a book are here with me in Indianapolis.”
These notebooks tell quite a tale: how four college athletics executives spent nearly two years, in secret, covertly meeting at airport hotels, while using masking tape to cover conference room walls with drawn-up brackets, finally arriving at the 12-team playoff model used today.
The working group of three conference commissioners, Bob Bowlsby (Big 12), Greg Sankey (SEC) and Craig Thompson (Mountain West), and one athletic director, Swarbrick (Notre Dame), examined nearly 100 playoff models — from four teams to 32 — during gatherings that spanned a global pandemic and, in the end, produced the format’s public rollout in June 2021.
Three-and-a-half years later, following a drama-filled approval process, the fruits of their labor are now more tangible than ever. Bracket selections are less than two weeks away — a historic and momentous occasion for an industry that, for decades, resisted such a multi-round postseason tournament.
“It’s so beautiful what the 12 has done,” said Bill Hancock, the former CFP executive director who assembled the working group in 2019 and was one of the few people involved in their meetings. “The real beauty is the value it places on conference championships. We’re seeing that. The premium it places on conference championships … it’s magic.”
Full story:
sports.yahoo.com
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Deep within Jack Swarbrick’s home, down a flight of stairs, across a basement floor and inside a small closet, the original relics of the expanded College Football Playoff format exist.
These note-filled papers are artifacts of an 18-month-long endeavor to create the largest and most significant postseason concept in college football history. They are kept safe and secret here, buried inside a brown box, only to be unearthed as evidence of a process that, perhaps, changed the sport forever.
“Some of them are in a landfill somewhere,” Swarbrick says, “but the ones I thought would be useful if I ever wrote a book are here with me in Indianapolis.”
These notebooks tell quite a tale: how four college athletics executives spent nearly two years, in secret, covertly meeting at airport hotels, while using masking tape to cover conference room walls with drawn-up brackets, finally arriving at the 12-team playoff model used today.
The working group of three conference commissioners, Bob Bowlsby (Big 12), Greg Sankey (SEC) and Craig Thompson (Mountain West), and one athletic director, Swarbrick (Notre Dame), examined nearly 100 playoff models — from four teams to 32 — during gatherings that spanned a global pandemic and, in the end, produced the format’s public rollout in June 2021.
Three-and-a-half years later, following a drama-filled approval process, the fruits of their labor are now more tangible than ever. Bracket selections are less than two weeks away — a historic and momentous occasion for an industry that, for decades, resisted such a multi-round postseason tournament.
“It’s so beautiful what the 12 has done,” said Bill Hancock, the former CFP executive director who assembled the working group in 2019 and was one of the few people involved in their meetings. “The real beauty is the value it places on conference championships. We’re seeing that. The premium it places on conference championships … it’s magic.”
Full story:
The making of the 12-team playoff: Inside the historic creation of the new college football postseason
The new 12-team CFP is already causing consternation and controversy. But how and why did they land on this specific format? Here's the behind-the-scenes story from its architects.
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