The SEC, Big Ten outrageous College Football Playoff demands is a brazen play for absolute power — or else

Lest you needed a reminder, college football’s power brokers have never truly loved the sport. 

At least not like you or I do. 

It’s the fans, players and coaches who actually care about the tradition, pageantry and rivalries. Hell, the games themselves. 

Those in charge have always had other priorities at the top of their interests. For a long time, this group was at least able to pretend like they cared about all the other stuff, though.  

(But they really didn’t.) 

Everyone has always been out for themselves, but now all the brazen power plays are no longer happening in the shadows. We’re getting every detail out in the open. From the glib grabs for more revenue to the constant, disingenuous talks about the need for “leadership.”

What was your favorite memory of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff?

Oh, right, it hasn’t even happened yet. 

See because of conference expansion in the SEC and Big Ten, the two power conferences well-actually’d the entire model just days after agreeing to the official 12-team format. 

The playoff must go to 14 teams! Not only that, but 14 teams and we — the SEC and Big Ten — always get the two top seeds and byes. 

“It just means more” because we just want more.

Suddenly, everyone realizes that actually watching the sausage get made is a nasty, nasty business. 

The SEC and Big Ten’s push for automatic bye weeks for their respective conference champions in a potential 14-team College Football Playoff is the latest gross move by both parties in their quest to completely stack the deck in their favor. 

The ACC and Big 12 are conferences already flailing in the wind, and the SEC and Big Ten simply decided to twist the knife and make it hurt a little more. 

The UEFA Champions League-like proposal where both the SEC and Big Ten would get three automatic bids, the ACC and Big 12 would get two apiece and the Group of 5 would get one was nothing more than a guillotine rope for Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti to hang the rest of the commissioners with another not-so-veiled threat: Accept these demands or else. 

Or else what? 

We might blow up the framework of the entire sport.

“One high-ranking official involved in the discussions told ESPN on Wednesday that the presidents and chancellors in both the SEC and Big Ten are having conversations about whether to continue their NCAA membership. It’s a move that would impact and could derail the TV agreement.

“Those conversations are happening,” the source said, adding some feel “pretty strongly about pulling away. I’d say very strongly.”

The SEC and Big Ten have positioned themselves to have the loudest voices in the room, and their recent alliance (reminder: one that just happened less than a month ago) has further strengthened their power. They’re going to make the most money already. They’re going to claim their share of playoff spots, too. 

And now they’re so bold they can make callous demands simply because they can — despite their insistence that when they formed their latest partnership that wasn’t their intention. 

“Stop seeing shadows in the room that aren’t there,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told the Business Journal when asked what his message to those who suggested the advisory group might be a precursor to a breakaway.

“We have some very big issues to be dealt with, and we identified those. Legal issues, legislative issues — that’s the focus.”

Really?

We know that Sankey and Petitti control the future of college athletics — not just football. What’s changed is they’re no longer pretending they care about anything other than absolute power.