The idea of a Big Ten and SEC takeover in the College Football Playoff may soon come to fruition with momentum building toward further expansion, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, featuring a bevy of automatic bids for each conference.
The contract for the 12-team format and its recently-adopted “straight-seeding” model ends after the 2025 season. Power conference commissioners met earlier this month with future playoff formats leading the discussion and “growing” support for the Big Ten and SEC’s proposal.
The two leagues reportedly will have significant influence the next round of expansion and how the format plays out given financial ramifications and sole voting power. Under the 16-team proposal, eight auto-bids from the Big Ten and SEC exist — four from each league — along with two ACC qualifiers, two Big 12, one Group of Five and three at-large teams.
SEC spring meetings begin this week with the exploration of a nine-game conference schedule on the front-burner. The only way the SEC would agree to add a ninth conference game would be additional inclusion in future playoff brackets along with the expectation of a bigger payday from its TV partner.
There is also discussion surrounding the Big Ten and SEC holding play-in games during conference championship weekend every year to determine the other auto-bids. Essentially, the two teams who appear in the league title game would be two of the auto-bids with the conference’s No. 3 and No. 6 teams deciding another along with a No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup.
The Big Ten and SEC are also in favor of the idea of a “double-bye” for the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the bracket. In the proposed 16-team bracket, the first round would consist of two games — the 16th seed against the 13th…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/explaining-big-ten-sec-16-team-college-football-playoff-proposal-how-it-would-look/
Author : Brad Crawford
Publish date : 2025-05-26 12:30:00
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