In what should not come off as a surprise for Big 12 fans, the SEC and Big Ten are already reportedly planning a way to give themselves a massive edge in the College Football Playoff, while hosing the Big 12, and the rest of college football.
According to a Monday report from ESPN, the Big Ten and SEC will meet in-person in Nashville next week, where athletic directors will discuss a possible partnership in football scheduling, along with their preferences for automatic bids, in the next iteration of the College Football Playoff.
Sources in both leagues told ESPN they would prefer to have potentially four automatic bids each to the playoff when the next contract begins in 2026.
“I’m for anything that gives us the maximum number of postseason opportunities,” one SEC source told ESPN. “I don’t count bowl games as postseason opportunities.”
Another SEC source wanted to limit or remove the role of the 13-member committee, due to the subjective nature of the committee in general.
Big 12 Implications
If the SEC and Big Ten got their way with several automatic bids, the likelihood of the Big 12 Conference getting multiple bids will continue to dwindle.
As I’ve long expected, the Power 2 conferences want to make this Playoff the SEC-Big Ten invitational. They might invite an extra team or two, or three, from other leagues, just to create the guise of it being a Playoff for all of college football. But it won’t be. And that was never in the plans of the SEC or Big Ten.
The conferences agreed to this current 12-team format because they needed the votes from the other conferences to get here, but now we are seeing the long-term plans on display, which basically limits inclusion of the rest of the sport.
There’s little question the SEC and Big Ten have the best teams at the top of their respective conferences, however the depth across both leagues, when compared to the Big 12, is most definitely up for debate.
If the SEC-Big Ten create a Playoff that mostly involves only these two leagues, there will be less opportunities for the other conferences to make the Playoff, and then win games, which then will, in turn, further the narrative that the SEC and Big Ten are the premier conferences in America.
It’s a viscous cycle. And both these leagues know exactly what they’re doing. Now, it’s on Brett Yormark to do his thing in fighting for the Big 12.
