By Scott Dochterman
Uncertainty surrounding the College Football Playoff’s structure for 2026 and beyond has filtered down to the bowl games outside the Playoff.
The bowls’ contractual ties to specific conferences, which inform which teams receive invitations to each game, expire after this season. Usually, new deals are completed at least a year, if not 18 months, ahead of the final contract year. But with CFP expansion talks approaching a Dec. 1 deadline to make changes for 2026, bowl executives have one eye on their upcoming matchups and another on the years ahead. “You want to make sure you’re in touch with all the conferences about what’s going on and what’s the future look like,” said Derrick Fox, executive director of the San Antonio-based Alamo Bowl. “The pregnant pause is a good analogy, because the CFP has to make a decision first. So, we wait until that decision is made, and then I think people will be ready to go certainly thereafter.”
Last year, the Alamo Bowl selected two current Big 12 teams in BYU and former Pac-12 member Colorado. It could happen again this year and, if the current contracts hold for another year, in 2026-27. “We do have a little bit of a unique situation,” Fox said. “Last year people that were concerned about Colorado-BYU, an all-Big 12 game. Does that make any sense? Lo and behold, we had our most-watched game ever and a sellout crowd. So, it worked pretty well from that perspective.”
Expect some movement once new contracts are written for either next season or 2027. The Big 12 (and the Southwest Conference before it) has long anchored the Alamo Bowl, with the Big Ten and Pac-12 as its primary competition. Now with former Big 12 teams Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma in the SEC, that league and the Big Ten could be interested in negotiations with Alamo Bowl officials — but not until the CFP finalizes its decision.
“Right now, it’s just a lot of what-ifs,” Fox said. “That’s why we’re having the conversations with everybody. Have we made any decisions? No, because we can’t. And in fairness to the conferences, they’re like, we don’t even know what we can really sell you.”
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