AFCA president explains coaches' biggest concern after 24-team endorsement

The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) made headlines Tuesday when it released a formal recommendation in support of several changes to college football in light of ongoing discussions around future College Football Playoff expansion. Among those recommendations included support for the Big Ten’s 24-team Playoff proposal currently under consideration by the CFP governance committee.

The AFCA recommendation came out of last week’s board meeting and included language supporting “the maximum number of participants” in any expanded Playoff, as well as significant changes to the current college football calendar, including ending the season no later than the week of January. The AFCA specifically called for eliminating conference championship games, reducing the number of required bye weeks to one, and reducing the number of days needed between games from seven to six.

AFCA executive director Craig Bohl expounded on the organization’s biggest concern around the current college football calendar Thursday during a conversation on ESPN Radio with Ian Fitzsimmons.

“It comes to getting the calendar right. And we’ve been charged with having our recommendation be known to a subgroup that’s studying the calendar — I sit on that committee. And it’s also going to run through the (Division I) Football Oversight (committee),” Bohl told Fitzsimmons. “So what we said was, let’s not keep on kicking the can down the road. What’s our biggest problem right now? And it’s the calendar. So we made some adjustments, we’re going to have a unified starting date with what has been Week 0, which allows for two byes, but coaches are saying, ‘We’d much rather trade a bye week to end the season earlier.’”

The conversation sparked greater discussions around the future of the postseason, including the idea of playing CFP games on the second Saturday in December — traditionally reserved for the annual Army–Navy game — without interfering with that game’s early-afternoon television window.

“We applaud President Trump and the White House about their executive order of putting a time guardrail around the Army-Navy game but also allowing that day to be used for more inventory,” Bohl added. “And then, also, coaches feel like we can reduce the number of days that would be needed from seven to six as far as getting a team ready to (play). So a lot there, a lot to unpack.”

The AFCA’s recommendation faced widespread backlash from college football pundits, including ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, who pointed out the AFCA has no direct influence on the future of the CFP.

“First of all, at the risk of upsetting all the people at the AFCA, when did they get a vote in any of this?” Finebaum said Wednesday on the Crain & Cone On3 show. “I mean, they’re a nice organization, they have a good convention every year … but I don’t really care what their opinion is about (Playoff expansion). I do not understand why people in the sport of football like the AFCA — and I interviewed their president (Bohl) a couple of weeks ago, he’s a perfectly nice guy, but he ought to keep his nose out of this — how they could endorse a 24-team Playoff. It’s utterly ridiculous.”