$4 million bonus proposal on the cards for CFP expansion as 11-member group meets to discuss new model

The College Football Playoff, often abbreviated as the CFP, is trending toward yet another change. The tournament to decide the sport's national champion included only four teams from 2014-23, then was bumped to 12 this previous season. Ohio State came out on top as the CFP's No. 8 seed.

Now, higher powers are mulling over the idea of adding another two teams to the format. ESPN's Heather Dinich wrote about the prospects of that alteration ahead of an important meeting between the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame's Athletic Director, Pete Bevacqua, taking place in Dallas on Tuesday.

"The commissioners and Bevacqua — an 11-member group called the CFP management committee — will discuss whether to change how teams are seeded in the 12-team field this fall, a tweak that would alter which teams earn first-round byes and an automatic $4 million for reaching a quarterfinal round," Dinich wrote.

In the article, Dinich also said the CFP bracket appears to be headed toward a 14-team field that guarantees four spots each for the SEC and Big Ten, two each for the ACC and Big 12, another for the Group of 5, and one more for an "at-large" for Notre Dame.

"This past fall, the four highest-ranked conference champions earned the top four seeds and a first-round bye," Dinich wrote. "Multiple decision-makers — beyond the SEC and Big Ten commissioners — would prefer to use the selection committee's ranking for the seeding while still making room for the five highest-ranked conference champions.

"In that model, the committee's top four teams would earn the top four seeds and first-round byes, regardless of whether they were conference champions. That would also open the door for Notre Dame, which can't win a conference title as an independent, to earn a first-round bye as top-four seed."

This past season, Boise State (Mountain West) and Arizona State (Big 12) won league crowns and were seeded in the CFP top four, receiving first-round byes. This wouldn't have occurred under the proposed system.

What could help improve the CFP?

Each of those top-four-seeded teams in the CFP last season lost in the quarterfinals to teams that enjoyed the benefit of opening-round home playoff games. Former Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III believes there's a change the CFP needs to make to improve the chances of those who've earned them.

"The change the College Football Playoff needs is for Conference Champs to have a home game in the quarterfinals after the 1st round bye," Griffin wrote last week on X/Twitter. "Otherwise they are getting blessed with the bye and then screwed with a neutral site game instead of having home field advantage."

The CFP's landscape is likely changing once again. Whether that's good for the sport or not is something that's up for debate. With the transfer portal and NIL, such change has become commonplace.