In college playoff debate, the Arizona St coach with everything to lose says he’ll take his chances

When it comes to the future of the College Football Playoff, there were as many opinions as there were coaches on hand at the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 meetings in Florida this week.

Perhaps the most eye-opening came from some of those with the most to lose — Kenny Dillingham of Arizona State and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark.

The consensus at their meetings, which wrapped up in Orlando on Friday, was a preference for a format, starting in 2026, that would include 16 teams — five of them automatic bids to the highest-rated conference champions and the other 11 awarded as at-large spots. That would be paired with a straight-seeding model that has already been adopted for next season’s playoff.

Had last season’s playoff used straight seeding, the Big 12 champion Sun Devils would have been seeded 11th, not fourth. Instead of a bye, they would have been stuck with a first-round road game at eventual national champion Ohio State.

But Dillingham said the change for the upcoming season is fine with him, and if the increasingly popular 5-11 model takes hold for 2026, that’s fine, too.

“Last season, maybe we didn’t earn the right to be the fourth seed. Maybe we earned the right to be the eighth seed,” said the coach, whose team was ranked 12th, but still received the fourth seed and a first-round bye before losing to Texas 39-31. “I believe you earn your way to those seeds, so I’m also in support of the 5-plus-11, that same thought process.”

The SEC and Big Ten will decide the format for the playoff starting in 2026, which is when ESPN’s new $7.8 billion contract kicks in.

Yormark said the SEC and Big Ten “have a great responsibility that goes with it to do what’s right for college football and not to do anything that just benefits two…

Source link : https://www.nbcsports.com/college-football/news/in-college-playoff-debate-the-arizona-st-coach-with-everything-to-lose-says-hell-take-his-chances

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Publish date : 2025-05-30 21:46:00

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