Why the Big 12’s Battle Over the Playoff Is Bigger Than Just Seeding

This isn’t just a format debate—it’s a fight over who gets to matter in college football’s future.

“We’re going to war.”

That quote from a Big 12 athletic director, delivered in response to the SEC and Big Ten’s push for a self-serving College Football Playoff format, sounds dramatic. Maybe even reckless.

But at this point in the sport’s evolution—or rather, de-evolution—it might be the only sane response left for those still trying to preserve the last threads of competitive integrity in college football.

Because this isn’t just about how many teams each league gets into a 16-team bracket. It’s not even just about money, although, of course, it always comes back to that. This is about the future of the sport itself. Who controls it. Who’s included. Whether college football becomes a professionalized, monopolized product controlled by two corporate mega-leagues, or remains a national, culturally diverse ecosystem where competition still matters.

The 4–4–2–2–1 Format Is a Power Grab Disguised as Logic

The SEC and Big Ten have made it very clear: they want four automatic playoff bids each. Under the 4-4-2-2-1 model, they’d claim half of the field every year—before a single down is played. The ACC and Big 12? Just two apiece. The rest of the country—Notre Dame, the Group of Five—would fight for scraps. It’s a structure that rewards consolidation, not competition. And it’s dressed up as a “logical” next step.

To be clear: the SEC and Big Ten aren’t wrong to leverage their brands, TV deals, and track records. As Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara points out, those leagues have dominated the sport’s biggest stages.

Since 2000, 22 of the 26 national champions have come from schools that now reside in the SEC or Big Ten—but dominating recent history doesn’t justify locking the door behind you.

If past dominance is the only logic, we’ll never get another TCU. Never get another Boise State. Never get a team from outside the blue-blood circle that climbs its way to the top and makes people believe. And if there’s no room for belief in this sport anymore, what’s the point?

What the Other Conferences Are Really Fighting For

That’s why the ACC, Big 12, Notre Dame, and Group of Five have to dig in—and fight. They’re not trying to preserve amateurism. That ship has sailed. They’re trying to preserve access. Relevance. The possibility of upward mobility. In an era where revenue sharing is about to pump $20 million annually into rosters at major programs, the only way to keep the sport from splintering entirely is to protect the postseason from being hijacked.

This playoff fight is just the latest front in a broader realignment of power. Behind the scenes, the SEC and Big Ten are inching toward their own governance structure. They’re backed by private equity firms. They’re talking to Goldman Sachs. They’re preparing to split off from the NCAA entirely—or at least, to neuter it completely.

The Big 12, ACC, and Notre Dame are now the last forces of resistance. They’re not perfect. They’re not saints. But they might be the last institutional hope for a playoff format that stands on equal representation and earning your way in. A format that still reflects the full scope of college football, not just its wealthiest corners.

There’s No Room Left for Polite Resistance

Going to war might mean legal battles. It might mean drawing lines in CFP boardrooms or withholding votes on format approval. It may involve public pressure campaigns, congressional lobbying, or even media muckraking—something the Big 12 has had to deal with for years now.

Whatever the route, there’s no longer room for polite negotiation. The SEC and Big Ten made their move. Now the rest of the sport has to decide if it’s willing to fight back—or fade into irrelevance.

No one is asking to go back to the BCS. No one’s asking to freeze the SEC or Big Ten out. But college football has always thrived on the idea that a team from anywhere—Manhattan, Lubbock, Ames, Morgantown—can dream big and play for everything. Strip that away, and you’re left with a glossier version of the NFL: fewer teams, higher salaries, bigger brands, fewer reasons to care.

This Isn’t Just About Seeding. It’s About Who Gets to Matter.

This is about way more than seeding matchups or automatic qualifiers. This is about whether college football becomes a sport for the many, or one controlled by the few.

And if the Big 12 has to go to war to make that case?

So be it.