College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock to retire in 2025
More change is coming to the College Football Playoff.
Bill Hancock, the executive director of the CFP since its inception in 2012, will step down from his role and retire when his contract expires on Feb. 1, 2025. He will remain with his current duties through the 2023-24 season.
“My time at the CFP has been a dream come true,” Hancock said. “I cherish what I do and the folks I get to work with. And I do love college football. Now I will run through the tape, as the track coaches say, and then I will enjoy whatever next steps are waiting for Nicki (wife) and me.”
Hancock, 72, became the executive director of the CFP when the event was created in 2012 as the successor for the Bowl Championship Series. Hancock, at the behest of the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, was tasked with putting the pieces of the four-team CFP together. That included negotiating agreements with existing bowl games, reaching a media rights agreement, assembling a selection committee and identifying host cities.
Hancock’s retirement will come days after the conclusion of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. The CFP field will expand from four to 12 teams in 2024 and that season’s national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 20, 2025, in Atlanta.
Hancock said there was a plan in place for him to inform the CFP Board of Managers a year in advance should he decide to step aside from his position.
“I’m advising the board now, so the new executive director will have a long on-ramp, as he or she prepares to guide the CFP into the 12-team era,” Hancock said.
Hancock previously worked for BCS, Final Four
Mark Keenum, the president of Mississippi State and the chair of the CFP Board of Managers, said the plan is for Hancock to move to a new role within the CFP in 2024 to help with the transition to the new executive director.
“We look forward to the next year under Bill’s leadership and many opportunities to recognize what he has done for the playoff,” Keenum said. “We will initiate a national search for a new executive director to take over when he steps away, and I anticipate Bill will shift to a new role with the CFP in 2024 to help with the transition to our new executive director.”
Before becoming the CFP’s first employee, Hancock was the executive director of the BCS and previously served as the director of the Final Four. Hancock worked for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for 16 years before joining the BCS in 2005, first as an administrator and then as executive director. Hancock also spent more than a decade working in the Big Eight Conference office.
“Everyone who is blessed to work with Bill knows he is a highly skilled administrator, strong leader and truly good person. He’s a legend in college sports,” Keenum said. “We were sorry when Bill told us about his and Nicki’s decision, but we are so grateful for his service in getting the CFP started and carrying it through the first nine years —10 after next year."
