College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock, a longtime influential college athletics administrator, will retire from his position when his contract expires on Feb. 1, 2025. His retirement will come almost immediately upon completion of the first 12-team College Football Playoff, which will be played following the 2024 season.
Hancock, who's recognized as the first employee of the CFP, was named the first director after the organization was created in 2012 and has worked in the role since. In his position, Hancock, 72, helped create the office that administers the playoff and handles all aspects from financials to logistics and sponsorships.
"My time at the CFP has been a dream come true," Hancock said in a statement. "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 and me."
While Hancock remains under contract until early 2025, he will continue his full-time duties as executive director only through the 2023 season.
"We look forward to the next year under Bill's leadership and many opportunities to recognize what he has done for the playoff," Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, chairman of the CFP Board of Mangers, said in a statement. "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."
For the better part of the past two years, Hancock's primary focus has been on the logistics of College Football Playoff expansion. The organization and its board -- made up of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick -- have been working on the finer details of an expanded 12-team playoff, which was formally approved in December 2022.
The discussions have been complicated by massive changes at the conference level. Four of the five Power Five conferences have changed commissioners since 2020, with the Big Ten leadership changing twice. After expansion was approved, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson also left his post and the conference hired WCC commissioner Gloria Nevarez to the same position. Swarbrick also announced that he will leave his position as Notre Dame AD in 2024.
Over the past 50 years, Hancock's fingerprints have been all over college athletics. In addition to the playoff, Hancock served as director of the NCAA Men's Final Four and administrator of the Bowl Championship Series, the format which preceded the CFP in crowning a national champion. He previously worked as a staffer at the Big Eight Conference.
