Rich Clark explains how potential Big Ten-SEC schedule agreement could impact College Football Playoff

In early October, officials from the Big Ten and SEC met for seven hours at Nashville’s Grand Hyatt to discuss the state of college athletics. Multiple topics were on the agenda, and the College Football Playoff was among the most notable.

Reports indicated a potential scheduling partnership between the two conferences, widely viewed as the top in college football, would be discussed. Such a move could increase strength of schedule – something CFP executive director Rich Clark noted while speaking with reporters Wednesday.

While Clark didn’t know the specifics of the conversations between the Big Ten and SEC, he pointed out the impact a scheduling agreement between those two leagues could have on the College Football Playoff. But with an increased strength of schedule, he said, comes the need to perform in such high-profile games. That’s another way a partnership could impact CFP selection.

“I wasn’t really privy to the discussions that they had, so I’m not sure exactly where that’s gonna go,” Clark said. “I do think if you were playing teams from the Big Ten and the SEC exclusively, that that would have an impact on their strength of schedule. But I don’t know if that’s really what the discussion is or if that’s what they’re planning on. But the better teams that any team plays … the greater their strength of schedule would be. And that would clearly help them in the committee room.

“But also, their performance against those teams also matters. So if you’re playing tougher teams but you’re losing to them all, that matters, as well. There’s trade-offs to playing harder teams, but I honestly don’t know exactly what the scenario might be for their … scheduling agreement, if they have one. If they do that, I don’t know what that might look like and how that really could affect what happens in the committee room.”

Where Big Ten, SEC rank ahead of first CFP reveal

Tuesday night, the first College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings will come out. Until then, the AP Top 25 poll is the primary ranking tool and could be an indicator of where the Big Ten and SEC sit in the national picture.

In the latest AP poll, three Big Ten teams and four SEC teams were in the Top 10. Miami was the lone ACC team, BYU represented the Big 12 and independent Notre Dame rounded out the top of the rankings. The seven combined teams shows the power the Big Ten and SEC have on the field.

All told, in the latest Top 25, the SEC had eight teams ranked and the Big Ten had five. For comparison, the Big 12 had four and the ACC had three. As a result, there’s a clear path for the SEC and Big Ten to get multiple teams in the College Football Playoff as it expands to 12 teams.

Greg Sankey details Big Ten, SEC conversation about schedule

As it stands now, Big Ten and SEC programs rarely play. That’s changing, though. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey cited data showed during this month’s meeting that showed multiple upcoming matchups between the two leagues in 2026-27.

But when it comes to the idea of a scheduling agreement, Sankey pumped the brakes. During the meeting, he said questions came up about what a a partnership would look like. The biggest was whether it would be a coordinated effort between the conferences or the schools.

“We had a conversation,” Sankey said. “Here’s how the conversation went. ‘Hey, we do this naturally, do you want to just leave it in your campus’ hands?’ ‘We can do something coordinated with the conference offices, but you have to work with us.’ ‘Is there something else out there, that’s like a third category?’ And people said, you know what, maybe you guys keep talking, see what you can do. That’s not an agreement.

“And I would just caution, the Pac-12 and Big Ten had an agreement a decade ago that never really came to fruition. There was this Alliance thing that was supposed to have scheduling that never came to fruition. I think you and I know each other well enough that you understand, we need to be careful in what we say. Can we have conversations? Sure. Do they get leaked? Sure. Does everybody react that there’s some giant move afoot? No, but we ought to be having these conversations because being in Ann Arbor – and credit to our hosts at Michigan with Texas – you just sit there and say, ‘Wow, man. What if you could do this more often?’ Whether it’s at Maryland or in Oxford, Mississippi or up in Minnesota and have them come down to Baton Rouge, something like that. I think we ought to talk about that.”