Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren pledges softer stance on automatic bids in College Football Playoff expansion

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren commented on his future plans about campaigning for automatic bids in College Football Playoff expansion talks. Warren has previously fought to guarantee automatic bids for champions in each Power 5 conference to have a spot in the College Football Playoff if it expands — something that he appears to be walking back from amid conference realignment.

Kevin Warren on playoff expansion automatic bids

“Asked Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren if he’d again fight for automatic bids for Power 5 champions in the next round of College Football Playoff expansion talks. ‘I’m going to soften my stance on it,'” said Warren via a Wednesday report from The Athletic.

The new stance provided by Warren comes on the heels of his previous pushback against playoff expansion as recently as February when he voted against expansion. Warren explained at the time that he believed in the idea of expanding the College Football Playoff, however he disagreed with the proposal provided at the time.

“To be very clear, the Big Ten Conference supports expansion of the College Football Playoff system — for our student-athletes, member institutions and fans,” said Warren of his vote earlier this year.

Now, he has provided some insight into what could have been a holdup for him last time the vote occurred. Warren was vocal about his hardline belief that Power 5 conferences would need automatic bids to the College Football Playoff if it was to expand beyond four teams. It’s now possible that the recent acquisition of USC and UCLA by the Big Ten Conference could have softened his stance on the issue.

“I’m going to soften my stance on it,” said Warren via The Athletic. “I just feel like we have to give some credit for conference regular-season success. Now, whatever that looks like, I don’t know.”

With conference realignment giving extra firepower to both the SEC and the Big Ten, mandatory bids for the Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 conferences could crowd out some “deserving” teams from Warren’s conference. Without automatic bids, the likelihood of multiple teams from one conference competing in the playoff increases — giving extra incentive to Warren to lighten his stance on automatic bids.