Big Ten, SEC demands for College Football Playoff bids on pause as leaders look to assess future landscape

The pause button was pressed on one of the biggest stories in college football in 2024 and it flew under the radar.

Earlier this year, the Big Ten and SEC were in the process of a hostile takeover of the College Football Playoff. Having already managed to secure a combined 59% of media rights revenue under the new CFP deal with ESPN, they have also socialized the idea of ​​essentially taking control of the category.

The reaction within the system was far from positive. The attempted coup peaked – or bottomed out, depending on how you look at it – in February, with reports that the two superconferences were trying to clinch the top two playoff spots for their respective champions, starting in 2026, when the new contract comes into force. It is made.

That was furthermore to seek three automatic qualifiers for each of the two leagues. Final count: 10 spots combined between Big Ten and SEC.

“I didn’t agree to it,” an administrator present at the time told CBS Sports this week. “It would potentially delegitimize the playoff to some degree. No league has that. No league offers much [access] because you have money.”

The pushback from the rest of college football was so significant that this type of talk died down before completely exploding. In fact, the resolution of the issue – perhaps expected when PCP leaders meet again in September – appears likely to be delayed.

O 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame apparently agreed let this season play out in a 12-team format before making any further decisions about the structure for 2026 and beyond. After 2026, virtually everything is at stake, including the possible expansion of the field to 14 and beyond.

“I’m just a humble one out of 11,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said last week. “I thought it would be wise to pass this year. I don’t think we should look at the format until we have had experience with 12 teams.”

Let’s take a deeper look at why once-aggressive talks about PCP expansion sooner or later cooled down.

The 5+7 model works… for now: The standard playoff configuration is the one debuting this season — a 12-team bracket with the five highest-seeded conference champions earning an automatic berth. The top four teams get a bye in the first round, which leaves seven teams free. For context, see how a 12-team field would have looked like last season.

“I think the selection committee and the management committee of the CFP [commissioners] we have to deal with what that means, those seven non-conference championship teams that participate,” Sankey said.

With the dissolution of the Pac-12, these top five AQs have essentially become the Power Four (Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12) +1 champions. Most years, that “+1” looks like it could eventually become the Mountain West champion if the conference adds Oregon State and Washington State as full members in 2026.

The ongoing issue is these seven at-large teams. The SEC’s power brokers have given it some thought in which direction they should go.

Big Ten and SEC get along well in any scenario: Sankey goes on to say that he has no problems with all general teams, and it’s easy to see why he took that stance. Big Ten and SEC teams will fill the bracket regardless of format. Why rush to formalize it? If the current 12-team format was in place last season, 10 of the 14 teams would have been from those two conferences.

In defending this 58% of revenue, the Big Ten and SEC noted that they were responsible for 29 of the 40 CFP berths (72.5%) in the first 10 years (2014-2023). Even so, they only received 33% of the revenue. In this era of expansion, they will get paid…it’s just a question of how much.

“To start talking about expanding it to any number, let’s see how successful it is,” said Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, chairman of the CFP Board of Directors. “I think [the expanded playoff] will be extremely successful. It was well received by our fan base across the country. If our coaches like it, the format, the dates [that’s good]. You will always think about options to improve and expand it. But, my God, it hasn’t even started yet.”

House v. Agreement NCAA: College athletics was driven into a ditch last month by the House vs. Board of Education settlement. NCAA. This distracted everyone in the college space. Despite all the legal levers still to be used in the agreement, it was easy to put the future of the PCP on the back burner. In truth, all other NCAA/collegiate discussions are secondary at this point, with pay-per-play, unionization and heavily impacted budgets all at stake.

The deal and its implications were the talk of the SEC’s spring meetings last week in Destin, Florida. No one had definitive answers. There was a lot of commotion. The uncertainty will likely last through this year at least.

Forget the PCP. There may not be an NCAA this time next year.

Litigation: Florida’s attorney general is continuing an antitrust investigation into PCP after Florida State was excluded from the 2023 field. To remember?

The AG is seeking records — if there are any — on how the 13-person selection committee reached its final decision to leave out an undefeated Power Five conference champion. This comes at a time when CFP’s veteran executive director, Bill Hancock, is stepping down, being replaced by Air Force Academy superintendent Richard Clark.

Imagine having what paperwork on his desk during his first few days in office.

Yes, the action is probably petty, frivolous and arrogant, but these days you ignore this type of litigation at your own peril. CBS Sports previously reported at least one of the selection committee members didn’t think FSU could win without injured quarterback Jordan Travis.

The selection committee’s criteria state that it is permissible to consider the “unavailability of key players… which is likely to affect their postseason performance.”

Sure, but should it be when that team is 13-0 and won the conference without their star quarterback at the end of the season?

It was later revealed that members of the selection committee received security after threats from FSU fans.

Conference Realignment: Why address the structure and format of the CFP when college football as a whole may not be able to do realignment? Florida State’s dogged effort to exit the ACC threatens to trigger the next round of consolidation. FSU’s departure would diminish, if not paralyze, the league. We’ve already seen the Pac-12 dissolve.

This promises to be a tough legal battle that could take years. Or not. The next date to watch is Aug. 15, when FSU must give the ACC a year’s notice of its intention to leave the conference. Clemson, which filed its own lawsuit to leave the league, is watching closely. After FSU, North Carolina might be one of the most valued brands for any conference.

How do you decide on automatic qualifiers when you don’t know how many conferences there will be?

Opt outs/collective bargaining/unions: PCP may be affected by any or all of these factors in the future. We have already talked about the probability of top draft picks, possibly skipping playoff games. Deactivations are already a problem among the bases.

If opt-outs become a trend, the PCP may have to do something because losing even a high draft pick affects playoff credibility. A early basketball tournament in Las Vegas intends to share NIL money with players. Could the PCP be led to do something similar?