Jan 18, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; The 2025 College Football Playoff logo at the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Big Ten and SEC Are Out of Their Minds with Whacky Playoff Format Proposal

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated May 27, 2025 10:01 AM ET

The College Football Playoff is set to expand once again, likely going from 12 teams to 16. The format, however, is something Power Four conference commissioners can't agree on.

Shocking, right?

The Big Ten and the SEC are trying to pound their chest as the big dogs, each wanting four automatic bids in a 16-team field. Yes, you read that correctly - FOUR automatic bids. In this proposal, the ACC and Big 12 would only receive two auto bids while the highest-ranked Group of Six champ would receive one as well, leaving three spots for at-large bids.

Commissioners of the ACC and Big 12, Jim Phillips and Brett Yormark, are not huge fans of this proposal and rightfully so.

Yes, the Big Ten and SEC have the largest TV deals and typically have put more teams in the playoff, but that doesn't mean they should just automatically be gifted playoff bids. This is college football after all, and there's no sure thing that those two leagues will be worthy of having that many teams in the playoffs every single year.

For example, let's say the Big Ten has a really down year, and Ohio State and Michigan are the only two teams who are deserving of a spot...we're just going to give the league two more bids just because? That's ridiculous.

Now, there is some reasoning behind this 4-4-2-2-1 format. If you look at the number of teams that would have made the 16-team field over the years, those numbers correlate to what the average representation would have been for each league.

Then again, there's no guarantee every one of those auto bids is deserving, and this can also be true about the ACC and Big 12. There will be years when they shouldn't have two teams in the CFP.

Everything is about money, of course, and the Big Ten/SEC are more worried about getting as many teams in as possible rather than having the most ideal format - auto bids for each Power Four champion, highest Group of Six champ, and eleven at-large bids, which is what the ACC/Big 12 are pitching.

Until there's an actual governing body over this thing (not the NCAA), the CFP will tend to lean in favor of the Big Ten/SEC.