'This should have been done two years ago:' As College Football Playoff moves forward, not looking back is hard

CLEVELAND — On a week dedicated to conference basketball tournament madness, Jon Steinbrecher spent most of his time worried about the future of the College Football Playoff.

In Locker Room I, to be exact.

Similar to his peers across the college football landscape, the Mid-American Conference commissioner has been entrenched on phone calls as conferences gathered to sign off on the future revenue distribution model of the College Football Playoff. Now in his 14th year leading the conference, he was emphatic Friday afternoon that no TV deal with ESPN has been signed yet.

“Today’s semifinals were the first full games I’ve seen the whole tournament. That’s life,” he said.

All nine FBS conferences and Notre Dame agreed to a revenue distribution model Friday for the next College Football Playoff contract which will begin in 2026 when the current deal with ESPN expires. The contract guarantees at least 12 teams will make it into the playoff through 2031, with options for playoff expansion.

Where Steinbrecher sits, he’s a proponent of further expansion. Speaking with On3 on Friday, he said he’s always been a supporter of a 14 or 16-team model. Somewhere between 12 to 16 is a good number, he said, only upping the chances for a MAC program to secure a bid. Among the terms agreed to Friday, conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 along with the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion will secure playoff berths. Notre Dame also has protections.

Group of 5 conferences are set to reportedly make $1.8 million annually with the new TV contract. However, Big Ten and SEC institutions will be bringing in more than $21 million. The ACC is set to distribute more than $13 million annually, while Big 12 schools will get over $12 million each.

Over his time with the conference, Steinbrecher has seen waves of conference realignment and the evolution of postseason college football from BCS, to a four-team model and now more than 12. This latest iteration — especially with uneven revenue distribution amongst the Power 4 — has created something he’s yet to see.

“There has always been a stratification of the revenue between the autonomy conferences and the nominal autonomy conferences,” he said. “What we’re seeing this time around now is further stratification. And for the first time, stratification of the revenue among the autonomy conferences. Wherever it’s ended up at, what I’ll tell you, it’s something we’ve all slogged through and worked on.”

The revenue distribution will surely encourage conference realignment. Florida State is currently waging a war with the ACC, and schools like Clemson and North Carolina could follow if the Seminoles are successful in the courtroom. If any schools leave, they’ll need a landing spot. But the stark financial differences in CFP payouts will only tempt institutions to make a push.

Steinbrecher declined to comment on another wave of realignment brewing. But the commissioner has been giving a front-row seat to the rise of the Big Ten and SEC. Two of the most historic conferences in the history of college sports, recent additions have made them as powerful as ever. Commissioners Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti hold a tight grip on the future of college sports as the most powerful leagues in college football.

“They exercise their leverage certainly to the benefit of their conferences, which is where their fiduciary responsibility. They’re both strong leaders of their league,” Steinbrecher said.

In August 2021, commissioners of the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 gathered on a joint video conference call to announce the formation of the Alliance. The move came in the aftermath of the SEC’s addition of Oklahoma and Texas.

The goals of the partnership were never fully realized. Former Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren threw out any pleasantries by adding USC and UCLA in the summer of 2022. The Pac-12 does not even exist anymore.

One of the few moves college football is still dealing with in the aftermath of the Alliance is a failed College Football Playoff vote. The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 voted against a 12-team model proposal in February 2022, holding it up with the 8-3 vote. In hindsight, it prevented the playoff from expanding a year earlier.

Those moves probably held up the timeline for the next CFP TV deal getting done. As Steinbrecher emphasized, no contract has been signed.

“This should have been done two years ago,” the commissioner said. “Plain and simple, and it wasn’t. That was a missed opportunity for the conferences involved.