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SEC, Big Ten reportedly in favor of another major change to College Football Playoff
The 2024-25 college football season was the first that featured a 12-team College Football Playoff, and there's a strong case to be made that it was a total success.
Sure, some of the first-round matchups were duds, but multiple rounds of CFP action did result in plenty of great watching experiences for college football fans.
Four teams didn't seem like enough, but 12 felt just right.
The Big Ten and SEC, though, seem to want more pieces of the pie. They're the two "super conferences" in college football, and more of their teams in the CFP ultimately means more revenue for their conferences.
That's why it's no surprise to hear that there were conversations about an extended CFP format when the four power-conference commissioners held an in-person meeting in New York on Thursday, according to college football reporter Ross Dellenger.
There is growing B1G-SEC support for a 16-team bracket, most notably a…
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 8, 2025
4 (SEC)
4 (B1G)
2 (ACC)
2 (B12)
1 (G6)
3 (at large)
…with season-ending inner-league play-in games (3rd place v 6th; 4th vs 5th), as @YahooSports reported in February.https://t.co/Rcl99Wndj9
The idea for the new 16-team CFP would give the Big Ten and SEC four auto-bids each, as Dellenger reported in February. The ACC and Big 12, the "lesser" of the four conferences, would get two auto-bids each, and the Group of Five would get one. That would leave three at-large spots, and one would assume Notre Dame would snag one of those most seasons as long as the Irish are highly ranked.
Detractors of CFP expansion might say that adding more teams lessens the importance of being in the CFP, and it could also make non-CFP games less meaningful. After all, Ohio State lost to Michigan to end the 2024-25 regular season and didn't even play in the Big Ten Championship Game, but the Buckeyes got hot in the CFP and ended up winning it all.
That's part of the charm of March Madness, of course, but college basketball's regular season also sometimes feels meaningless. Is that a route college football wants to go down?
Ultimately, more CFP means more revenue and television deals, though, so a proposal like this is likely to move forward. Money has always driven college football, and it's no different now that the NIL era has made it that much more transparent.
Per Dellenger, there should be a resolution soon, with the Big Ten and SEC ultimately holding all the cards.
"A decision is expected over the next month or two," he posted. "The Big Ten and SEC hold their springs meetings later this month, where the SEC is expected to seriously explore a 9-game conference schedule — a move contingent on a CFP format and negotiations with ESPN for more revenue."
More must-reads:
- Penn State gets massive vote of confidence in early CFB rankings
- $3M QB's team, Penn State among college football's most intense pressure cookers
- The 'MLB mascot names' quiz
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