Rose Bowl Agrees To Deal, Paving Way For Early CFP Expansion

The last remaining obstacle to expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in the 2024 and 2025 seasons has been cleared.

A source told ESPN on Wednesday night that the Rose Bowl has agreed to terms that will pave the way for the College Football Playoff to expand in the final two seasons of the current contract -- 2024 and 2025.

Any more steps toward an expanded playoff are a formality, as the formal announcement of the CFP expansion beginning in 2024 is expected to be imminent.

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In early September, the College Football Playoff board of managers voted to expand the CFP to 12 teams starting in 2026.

The upcoming announcement puts an end to the awkward and complex process to expand the College Football Playoff, which has epitomized the fractured and nonlinear structure of college sports.

To reach the September expansion decision to 12 teams, it took significant momentum swings that included introducing a 12-team proposal in June 2021. That eventually got shot down amid conference infighting, leading to second-guessing on why a potential model was announced before it was approved by all the constituents.

The following year, the college presidents who make up the CFP board of managers essentially decided to work backward, first approving the 12-team model in September that would start in 2026. They then targeted 2024 and 2025, which was always going to be complicated because it required presidents from all 10 conferences and Notre Dame to agree unanimously.