Revised CFP format another hit to mid-major programs

ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC conference champions are effectively guaranteed a spot in the playoff, and chances are the majority of at-large bids will go to the Big Ten and SEC.

Of the top 12 teams in the CFP committee's final 2023 rankings, 11 were either Big Ten or SEC members when accounting for conference realignment.

Of course, that consolidation of power is precisely what the top two conferences in college athletics want. The Big Ten and SEC formed an advisory group to look at ways to fix the sport that has been rocked by lawsuits and Supreme Court decisions.

The coalition increased the perceived threat of the two conferences splitting off and forming their own playoff, but with the two likely to gobble up most, if not all, of the at-large bids, the fat cats will go to bed with their stomachs full.

Ostensibly, we could get better games under the revised format. For every Boise State upset over Oklahoma, college football is as likely to produce an Oregon-Liberty. But the decision further pushes the Group of Five to the margins amid an offseason in which the discrepancy between the haves and have-nots has been amplified.

Head coaches at South Alabama and Buffalo left their posts for coordinator roles at Alabama, and as programs outside of the Big Four are forced to scrap for increasingly diminishing rewards, we'll likely see more defections, further destabilizing the sport.

The "5+7" model ensures the rich get richer while everyone else gets a smaller portion of the pie. It's also another example of college football being decided as much in boardrooms as it is on the field.

So much of the sport is a beauty contest, and the updated format assumes that programs and conferences that rake in the most money are inherently better than those with fewer resources.

Instead of mid-majors getting the opportunity to prove they belong in the playoff, the CFP just told them they don't.