FRISCO, Texas – Although the future format of the College Football Playoff remains in flux, a key tweak to the selection process is set to be finalized in August.

The CFP is expected to present its final version of new, refined metrics involving strength of schedule in mid-August, when its 13-person selection committee convenes in Colorado Springs for their annual preseason meetings, CFP executive director Rich Clark told CBS Sports on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the debate on whether to expand the playoff from 12 to 16 teams – and reward multiple automatic qualifiers to the Big Ten and SEC – still hangs over the head of the sport, with no resolution in sight other than the promise of a looming Dec. 1 deadline that will force the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua to make a decision. Clark confirmed the CFP’s executives have not met since June, when format discussions restarted with multiple formats for 12-, 14- and 16-team fields on the table. Executives are not scheduled to meet in person again until Sept. 24.

“I know they want to [decide] before [Dec. 1],” Clark stated. “They want to get it resolved so that they can make decisions within their conferences and the rest of college football can make decisions as well.”

CFP format could directly affect whether the SEC moves from eight to nine conference games, a sticking point for the league that has not been resolved despite intense discussions over the last three years. Universal conference scheduling is a concern among many in the industry; the Big Ten and Big 12 play nine conference games, compared to eight in the ACC and SEC.

At the very least, imminent changes to the tools utilized by the selection committee are on the way. The selection committee will meet Aug. 12-14 to learn more about the new metrics.

The new metrics will be utilized for the upcoming 2025 season. The CFP will also transition to straight seeding for the 12-team CFP – for at least one year – with spots reserved for the five highest-ranked conference champions, but they’re no longer guaranteed a first-round bye.

Conferences advocated for a reevaluation of SOS metrics used by the selection committee after the 2024 season, and a study was commissioned in the spring by SportSource Analytics, the CFP’s metrics partner. They outsourced help from mathematicians, including from Google and the University at Buffalo, to tweak the formula. Proposed changes were presented to the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua in June, but more tweaks could be made before the final presentation is provided to the selection committee in August.

Conference realignment has significantly shifted the landscape, expanding the SEC from 14 to 16 teams and the Big Ten from 14 to 18 teams, as both the ACC and Big Ten have expanded their boundaries from coast to coast over the last three years.