'Forget fairness': Former ESPN president gets brutally honest about CFP rankings conspiracy theory

"There was no attempt, at this point in the year, to go and try to convince the committee that we figure out a way to put Alabama in instead of Miami," Skipper said. "I can guarantee you they're not calling up ESPN ... 'you want Miami or Alabama?'"

The popular conspiracy theory that the network influences the final bracket has spread wildly online among fan bases and emerged from the fact that ESPN is paying $1.3B annually for the rights to the playoff.

"The money we were paying did not make us all-powerful," he continued.

Skipper, who resigned from the network in 2017, instead explained what he thought was the actual issue with the controversial rankings.

"[The committee relies] upon this pretense that everything is mathematical," he said. "There's no fair or right; it's an entertainment on television designed to attract a large audience ... that's what it's about, forget fairness."

He also explained that during his tenure, he explicitly told conference presidents, particularly the SEC, to not "play any cupcakes" on their schedules but that they "didn't listen."

The final 2024 playoff bracket will be revealed Sunday at noon ET on ESPN, a day after conference championships are determined and automatic berths locked in.

Regardless of the results, fans and pundits will likely still complain over who did and didn't get in, something that has become as engrained in the sport as griping about bad calls.