Big Ten, SEC Favor College Football Playoff Seeding Change, No Automatic Byes For Conference Champ
The SEC and Big Ten met for the second time in five months on Wednesday to discuss the future of college athletics, with the college football playoff format playing a key part in how they will navigate the start of a new contract that begins after the 2025 season.
Most of the conversation heading into this meeting centered around whether a format change for the CFP is on the horizon, and how many teams that might include moving forward. While Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti reportedly did not give any hints as to what their plan would look like when it's presented to other conference commissioners, it does sound like we are heading to further expansion, according to sources privy to the conversations.
But, there has been another topic on the minds of athletic directors within the SEC over the past few years, and that has centered around the option of moving to nine conference games. One of the biggest components of this would be how the strength of schedule, and potential losses that could occur for some of the teams fighting for a playoff spot would be affected with an additional game.
While this has been a point of contention for a number of athletic directors during past meetings, there looks to be at least a path to getting to this spot. According to Heather Dinich, ‘there is a lot of interest’ in a potential nine-game conference schedule, which again could be contingent on how the CFP format is configured.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey are in favor of changing CFP seeding (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Greg Sankey, Tony Petitti In Favor Of ‘Straight Seeding’ For Playoff
One of the biggest talking points that we heard during the recent college football playoff centered around how teams were seeded, along with obviously giving conference champions a guaranteed spot. As we witnessed this past season, having Boise State and Arizona State receiving a first-round bye led to plenty of conversations around the playoff committee's rankings.
While meeting with reporters in New Orleans, both commissioners made it clear that they would favor changing the seeding process for the upcoming season. This is nothing new, but to say this once again before meeting with the CFP management committee next week, they are obviously showing a united front with their stance.
In reality, this makes perfect sense. Not giving automatic byes for a conference champion and basing the playoff seeding on the CFP committee's rankings could be a welcome change for some. But, getting the ACC and Big 12 onboard with this could be a hassle. If there is going to be any changes made to the 2025 playoff format, they would need a unanimous vote from all commissioners, along with Notre Dame.
Looking back on this past playoff, while Boise State was ranked 9th in committee rankings, they ended up getting the No. 3 overall seed, while Arizona State received the No. 4 seed, though the Sun Devils were ranked 12th in the final CFP poll.
Now, we obviously cannot predict the future when it comes to these games. It's worth noting that the top-four seeds were eliminated in the quarterfinal round, which caused a stir to say the least. But again, having this part of the process change in the upcoming 2025 playoff would take the ACC and Big 12 going back on their comments about this potential move.
In the end, while there were conversations about what the college football playoff could look like moving forward, the Big Ten and SEC would continue their discussions about automatic qualifiers and expanding the postseason.
Expect the SEC to continue its discussions about moving to nine conference games, which will be a highly-contested topic leading into Spring meetings in Destin on Memorial Day weekend.
For now, both commissioners are holding their cards close to the vest, but we are once again headed towards a likely change of the college football playoff.