Report: Big Ten, SEC ADs set joint meeting to discuss new enforcement arm, College Football Playoff format
Athletic directors from the SEC and the Big Ten are scheduled for a joint meeting in Nashville, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports. It’s a rare gathering of decision-makers from two of the most powerful college conferences.
That meeting is scheduled to take place at some point in the next month. It’s viewed as a continuation of the partnership that the two financially strongest conferences announced in February.
Among the topics that the SEC and Big Ten administrations are expected to discuss in the meeting are a new enforcement arm that wouldn’t be the NCAA, the College Football Playoff format, and a scheduling arrangement for football.
This comes at what has been described as a “transformational time” in college athletics history. Despite that, it’s being reported that impactful decisions won’t be made at this meeting. Instead, this is the next step of the partnership these two conferences started with the creation of a joint board.
The meeting won’t just be the schools’ athletic directors. Both commissioners from the SEC and the Big Ten, Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti, will also be in attendance. On top of that, high-ranking conference staff members are also expected to be in attendance.
One major topic that’s going to be discussed is the House Settlement. Still currently waiting for approval in federal court, that settlement would allow for revenue sharing and in the process change the model of college athletics moving forward. Still, there are legal steps to go through before that’s approved.
Other topics, like the College Football Playoff format, will also be discussed. That comes as 2024 is the first season of the new 12-team format. However, there has already been talk about further expanding it in the coming years. On top of that, the SEC and Big Ten could discuss a scheduling agreement for both the regular season and postseason that could be highly impactful.
That postseason scheduling agreement would be a reimagined non-playoff bowl lineup featuring arranged matchups between the leagues. In turn, that would help open additional revenue streams in a revamped postseason.
Another big-picture topic for the SEC and Big Ten athletic directors to discuss is the idea of moving on from the NCAA as an enforcement arm and finding a new organization to handle those issues. However, that type of discussion is still in a very preliminary stage.
The report from Dellenger explains that the meeting is likely more symbolic of the two conferences coming together to discuss issues impacting college athletics. At the same time, it could be the first step toward more changes in college athletics.