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MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Inside one of the Sandestin Hilton’s many meeting rooms, some of the most highly paid and recognizable college football coaches, sitting alongside their athletic directors, tossed a proverbial wrench into playoff format discussions this week.
A majority of the SEC’s coaches did not support the multiple automatic-qualifier playoff structure that had gained momentum with a large group of their administrators.
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A ninth league conference game? No thanks, plenty of coaches said.
A season-ending, inner-conference play-in game? No way, some of them told ADs.
The 16 coaches weren’t completely aligned against the concepts, but the room wasn’t split either: They preferred a format that is similar to the current 12-team bracket — a 5+11 model with five automatic qualifiers for conference champions and 11 at-large bids instead of the so-called “4-4-2-2-1” model that grants twice as many qualifiers to the Big Ten and SEC (four each) than to the ACC and Big 12 (two each).
The stance from SEC coaches — and the pushback from the public, other conferences and even television partner ESPN on the 4-4-2-2-1 format — has, perhaps, altered the conversation around the future of football’s postseason as the three-day SEC spring meetings ended Thursday.
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So, what now?
During his final news conference from here, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey declined to reveal his league’s preference in a model, only saying the conference is “interested” in certain formats and that he would discuss those in his next meeting with his fellow FBS commissioners. But it is clear, more than ever, just how seriously the SEC is considering the 5+11 model.
Take Thursday’s news conference, for example. While Sankey spoke, SEC officials distributed to media members a seven-page packet of data…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/future-college-football-playoff-formats-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-whats-on-the-table-234145766.html
Author : Ross Dellenger
Publish date : 2025-05-29 23:41:00
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