Big Ten, SEC are inevitable like Thanos in deciding future College Football Playoff structure

Some more change is coming to college football and I’m not just pointing to revenue-sharing via the House v. NCAA Settlement. Are you ready for another College Football Playoff (CFP) expansion? Well, you better be because one is coming in 2026 when ESPN’s billion-dollar deal kicks in.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey might as well be Thanos.

How different will the new format look? There will be more teams (either 14 or 16) and the ones making the decision will be Petitti and Sankey. What about ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark?

That’s where it gets interesting.

According to reporting from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, all parties involved with this latest CFP expansion agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding that essentially handed power and control over to the Big 2 in college athletics after they threatened to leave and create their own playoff system.

Sources: SEC, Big Ten building momentum to further expand College Football Playoff to 14 or 16 teams (Yahoo Sports)

The CFP Management Committee is scheduled to meet next week in Dallas where a new postseason format could be presented and decided upon after Petitti and Sankey meet this week. The SEC and Big Ten could get a total of eight automatic qualifiers.

Within the SEC and Big Ten, momentum is building to further expand the playoff to 14 or 16 teams, assign multiple automatic qualifiers per league — as many as four each for themselves — and finalize a scheduling arrangement together that may fetch millions in additional revenue from TV partners, sources told Yahoo Sports.

The 14- or 16-team model would grant four automatic qualifiers each to the SEC and Big Ten; two each to the ACC and Big 12; and one to the highest-ranked Group of Five champion. It includes one or three at-large spots, one of those intended for Notre Dame if it finishes ranked inside the top 14 — a guarantee specifically designated for the Irish that is part of the CFP memorandum.

Officials describe the 14-team format as a 4-4-2-2-1+1 model in which the top two seeds receive first-round byes. There would be no byes in a 16-team structure. In either, the CFP selection committee’s role is greatly diminished. The committee, its future — as the memorandum stipulates — also controlled by the SEC and Big Ten, would presumably seed 1 through 14 or 16 based directly on its top-25 rankings.

Ross Dellenger (Yahoo Sports)

This could change things in a big way. There would be no real reason for a playoff selection committee and the structure would get college football closer to the NFL playoff model where there is automatic qualifiers. How those would be decided upon is to be determined. There is also a thought that this could stylistically change conference championship weekend with power conferences potentially using the stage as a play-in game for the sport to create its own wild card round.

There is also discussion that the expanded model could finally be the push that Sankey needs to get his member institutions to agree to a nine-game conference schedule. There would also be a SEC and Big Ten scheduling agreement that could bring some marquee non-conference games that could generate some more revenue from the media rights holders (FOX and ESPN).

The SEC and Big 10 are meeting this week to hammer out a plan that would expand the CFP and add a 9th conference game to the SEC schedule, as soon as next year. @RossDellenger reports: pic.twitter.com/yM5ROmgMeW

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) February 17, 2025

Massive changes are coming to college football. What does that mean for Kentucky in the short-term? It could mean the end to the Governor’s Cup series with Louisville if the SEC goes to nine games and if the Wildcats are forced to play a Big Ten team semi-regularly in non-conference play.

The new model would mean more postseason access for everyone but the SEC and Big Ten would get nearly 60 percent of the pie. Those two leagues run college football — and they are inevitable.