The meetings that could upend college football
The Big Ten and SEC are meeting to push major changes to the College Football Playoff—including expanding to 14 or 16 teams. With billions on the line, this power move could shake up how the sport crowns its champ.
Big Ten and SEC officials are meeting this week in New Orleans. On the docket: Visiting Bourbon Street without the wives, and discussing a change to the College Football Playoff format.
Background: Last spring, when planning the future of the CFP, the Big Ten and SEC – the big dawgs of college football – threatened to walk away and create their own postseason system if they weren’t granted a majority of CFP revenue and full control over the playoff format.
In the end, execs of the 10 FBS leagues and Notre Dame signed a memorandum of understanding handing control over to college football’s two richest conferences starting in 2026, when the CFP’s six-year, $7.8 billion media rights deal with ESPN kicks off.
What could change
The Big Ten and SEC are pushing to expand the playoff to either 14 or 16 teams (from 12 currently), with multiple automatic qualifiers per conference – including four each for themselves.
- The 14-team format has been described as a 4-4-2-2-1+1 model, with the top two seeds receiving first-round byes. There would be no byes in a 16-team structure.
- Under these models, each power conference would need to establish the way in which they qualify their teams for the automatic berths, Yahoo Sports reports – potentially throwing conference championship games into flux.
Looking ahead…The format changes will be discussed when the CFP Management Committee meets on Feb. 25, with final decisions expected in the coming weeks.
