SEC denies rift with Big Ten on College Football Playoff, but tensions linger

There is no animosity between the SEC and Big Ten despite college football’s two most dominant conferences appearing to differ on how to structure the future playoff.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says he and his counterpart, Big Ten chief Tony Petitti, are on good terms, even as they seem to have opposing views on what the College Football Playoff should look like in the years to come.

“There is no rift between the SEC and Big Ten commissioners,” Sankey told Paul Finebaum. “We have different views. That’s okay.”

For much of the offseason, it appeared the SEC and Big Ten were on the same page as to how the future playoff should be structured.

Until recently, the two conferences agreed that they should be awarded four automatic qualifiers each, while giving the ACC and Big 12 two each.

But then the SEC appeared to back out of that view after it received some backlash, namely from the ACC and Big 12, which denounced that plan as unfair.

A turning point seemed to come early in June following the spring meetings, when it emerged that SEC football coaches took issue with the idea of automatic qualifiers being given to conferences, wanting instead to decide playoff teams on the field.

That left the Big Ten alone in supporting the four automatic qualifier proposal, a stance it’s unlikely to budge from unless the SEC adds a ninth conference game to its football schedule, up from the current eight-game league slate it plays.

The feeling from the Big Ten is that the SEC will artificially improve its win-loss numbers come playoff selection time by playing a perceived pushover opponent late in the season, known informally among fans as “Cupcake Week” in late November, while Big Ten teams play league opponents.

Sankey has endorsed the idea of adding that ninth conference game in theory, but there doesn’t appear to be any imminent pressure or plan to actually implement it.

Which means the Big Ten will want to get as many automatic qualifiers in any future playoff that it can, to prevent the SEC from snatching up at-large bids based on what the selection committee believes is a tougher overall schedule in that league.

Sankey pushed back on the idea that he and Petitti aren’t in regular communication on the matter.

“We talked this morning,” Sankey said.

“We talked about our different views, disagreements. Fine, there’s gonna be a lot of times when we agree. There’ll be times when we agree on most things. That’s okay.”

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