Power leagues set to clash over Playoff changes |
Brandon Rink
· · Thursday, February 20 2025
The SEC and Big Ten conferences have power and will have more as this decade progresses, but they may not get what they want in one area.
At least not yet. The Power leagues presented a united front out of a New Orleans meeting this week in pushing for a change to the automatic bye system in the College Football Playoff. They would like the ability to have more than one team get a Top 4 seed and a guaranteed spot in the quarterfinal round of the 12-team CFP. In the first year of the system, the Big Ten had the top seed (Oregon), and the SEC had the No. 2 spot (Georgia), but a one-conference-per-top-four-spot deal pushed No. 9 Boise State to the three-seed and No. 12 Arizona State to the four-seed. If it was a seeding according to the final CFP Top 25, not surprisingly the SEC and Big Ten would have benefited with the other spots, with Texas to No. 3 and Penn State to No. 4. The push now is on two fronts. There is one more year of the current CFP deal and every conference commissioner and Notre Dame will have to approve a change for the 2025 season. The next CFP deal is set to shift more voting power to the the SEC and Big Ten and the field will likely expand and could bring more automatic spots for those leagues. The Big 12 and Mountain West were the obvious beneficiaries of the first expanded Playoff when it comes to the automatic bye, while the ACC did well with a fifth guaranteed conference champion, meaning Clemson was in the field, and no more automatic byes allowed SMU to grab the last at-large place for a multi-bid league. Yahoo reported on the fight the SEC and Big Ten are expected to get on 2025 changes: Why would the Big 12, ACC and many of the Group of Five commissioners — the main benefactors of the rule — vote for such a move? They wouldn’t. Some of them have hinted as much in comments to Yahoo Sports last month. “I do not have the appetite to give up any financial reward that comes with a bye,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said last month, alluding to the $8 million reward earned by a team that automatically advances into the quarterfinals. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips referred to similar professional playoff formats that use an automatic bye structure for teams that win divisions or conferences, such as the NFL. “It’s not as if this system is so foreign,” he said. “This shouldn’t be used as a convenient rationale. It deserves a review and we should talk about how it went. But it’s not some exotic structure.” Changes after one year of data “seem a bit quick,” Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez added, her team (Boise State) a benefactor of a bye last playoff. Per reporting, the FBS commissioners will meet next week in Dallas to discuss short and long-term CFP tweaks. ESPN, which has had the rights to the CFP all along and is the exclusive provider for the SEC and ACC, is an interesting source to see the reporting on going forward: The SEC and Big Ten have the bulk of control over what the CFP will look like when the new contract with ESPN begins following the 2025 season. That power was part of the negotiation process that also included guaranteed access for conference champions and certain protections for Notre Dame. When asked directly what their respective conferences would like the playoff to look like in 2026 and beyond, Sankey declined to get into specifics... The four power conference commissioners are set to have a call this weekend in advance of next week's CFP meetings in Dallas, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel. There's expected to be an update of what transpired at Wednesday's Big Ten-SEC meeting and potential steps ahead for the CFP, according to sources. For almost a year, multiple sources in both leagues have indicated a strong preference for expanding the field to 14 teams in 2026 and beyond. Sources in the SEC and the Big Ten have also favored a certain number of automatic playoff spots for each league, but even within each league there remain varying opinions. Sources in the Big Ten seem more aligned in their desire for automatic qualifiers. A popular model includes four guaranteed teams each from the Big Ten and SEC, two teams each from the Big 12 and ACC, one spot for the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion, and one at-large spot, which could go to Notre Dame if the Irish were ranked high enough for inclusion. Per multiple reports, the SEC and Big Ten could also adopt a scheduling agreement that could partner with the SEC moving to the same 9-game conference schedule that the Big Ten has. That could have a cascading effect on scheduled non-conference games down the road with other leagues. Outside of its rivalry with South Carolina from 2026-on, Clemson has future dates set with LSU (2026), Georgia (2029, 2030, 2032, 2033) and Oklahoma (2035-36). "It's so unfortunate that we believe we have to continue to look out for our self-interests," one Big 12 source told ESPN. "Who is looking out for the greater good of college athletics and college football in particular? If the discussions between the Big Ten and the SEC can bring ideas to the table that are going to look out for the greater good, then that's great. They should be discussed and brought forward. But is that what's really happening?" SEC ADs & coaches did discuss the potential to moving to nine conference games both Monday and Tuesday. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says they have not made a decision but it does sound like several people in the room, at first against nine games, are re-thinking their position. As reported in the past, changes to the 2025 playoff must take unanimity. The Big 12 and ACC commissioners have come out publicly against a change.
Story from last month on that - https://t.co/W8haEmxmu7
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