Roughly a week after the news broke, we have a bit more insight into why exactly the College Football Playoff will remain at 12 teams next season.
An inside source spoke with Brett McMurphy of On3 this week about how the power dynamic between the Big Ten and the SEC has brought the expansion to a 16-team format to a screeching halt. Essentially, the Big Ten wants to go, well, big, and the SEC has a specific vision for the 16-team table.
Financially speaking, nobody’s arguing why the Big Ten and the SEC are the hand(s) guiding expansion. But one particular comment casts a particularly dark, and albeit unsurprising, shadow over what’s going on between the two conference giants behind not-so-closed doors.
“They basically bullied their way into an agreement that provides them a lion’s share of revenue and control of the format,” the source told McMurphy. “And yet, they can’t work together because of their egos.”
WHAT DOES EVERYONE WANT?
The Big Ten is swinging for the fences with a 24-team proposal, while the SEC is interested in expanding the playoff by just four teams. The SEC specifically wants a 16-team playoff featuring five autobids and 11 at-large bids.
Just how many seats are available matters, not only in the interest of fairness but for sanity’s sake.
Why stop at 16 or 24? In a couple of years, folks will be blogging about the horrors of a 36-team format and why the SEC thinks it’s too far. There’s a lot of money attached to the College Football Playoff, and much of its exclusivity comes from the fact that it remains at 12 teams – for now.
In its current design, the 12 teams in the playoff aren’t the top 12 teams in the AP Top 25; Hence why Notre Dame, BYU and Texas were dropped in favor of Miami, American champion Tulane and Sun Belt champion James Madison.
WHAT’S BEST FOR THE BIG 12
If you’re Brett Yormark and the Big 12, you’re sitting pretty with the latest installment of the 12-team playoff.
Every Power 4 conference champion receives an automatic bid (there’s one on the board right away). After three more Power 4 champions, the highest-ranked Group of 6 program and the Notre Dame clause, which autobids the Irish, should they be inside the AP Top 12, that leaves six seats up for grabs.
Assuming Notre Dame gets in, the Big 12 will find itself squeezed yet again after BYU, ranked No. 11 in the final AP Top 25 poll, missed the cut for this latest playoff. Add four, at-large chairs to the table, and the Big 12 has a realistic shot at getting two, maybe even three, programs into the mix.
Yormark is a fan of the 16-team format, and it’s certainly the most logical in serving each of the Power 4 conferences. The issue remains whether any future 16-team scenario would, in fact, stay at that number.
