The entire drama surrounding the SEC and the Big Ten’s attempt to influence playoff structures in their favor is now in full swing. Not Tony Petitti, the Big 10 commissioner, nor even Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, are budging down and pushing their own conference’s interests. At the end of it, the product gets damaged, and for a normal fan, sometimes it gets more complicated than an episode of Succession. Where will all of this stop? And will it take a federal order to put an end to this circus?
The whole controversy started back in February of this year, when both the SEC and the Big 10’s leaders met in New Orleans and unequivocally decided that the playoff would expand to 14 teams with four spots guaranteed to each of the two conferences. The structure was 4-4-2-2-1-1, with 2 spots each going to the ACC and Big 12, and the remaining 2 to Notre Dame or Group of 5 teams if the Irish don’t finish in the top 14. All hell broke loose, and the conferences faced public backlash.
Representative Brendan Boyle even wrote a scathing statement on X to the Big 10 and SEC, making it increasingly a political issue, too. “The next time the Big Ten or SEC wants to meet with me about NIL, they need to be prepared to first explain to me how they justify trying to rig the CFP,” wrote Boyle on his X account. But the drama didn’t end there. 2 days ago, the SEC again met in Destin and pondered the CFP issue. Greg Sankey came out with a statement that proposed a 5-11 model expanded to 16 teams. But this model again has its problems.
Rece Davis, speaking on the 29th May episode of the “ESPN College Football’ podcast, highlighted the consequences that the SEC might have to face. “They make a decision that they think is going to rectify a problem that they have identified that has shown up in the past, and then a bigger problem emerges that they didn’t foresee or they diminished. I think guys like Greg Sankey and Tony Patiti are trying to do that. I think there are more undesirable unintended consequences that would come from automatic qualifiers.” What are the problems?
The 5-11 model will give 1 automatic bid to each of the ‘power’ conferences and the fifth one to the Group of 5 champions. The rest of the 11 spots will be awarded at-large and will be distributed according to the CFP rankings. On the surface, the format looks ‘equitable,’ but it has its problems. For instance, last year, 6 SEC teams were in the top 16, and the year before that, 5 SEC teams were in the top 13.
So, in the end, the SEC would be getting those 4 teams they always wanted, even with the 5-11 format, even in their own season. And if the season is great? We could see more than 5 SEC teams, too. What this will bring is dissatisfaction amongst other conferences like the ACC and Big 12, which would later result in chaos like we saw in the BCS era with congressional hearings.
Greg Sankey proclaims that the SEC has “given too much,” as he announces expanded playoffs
As per The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, initially, the idea of the automatic bids was the “brainchild” of the Big 10’s commissioner, Tony Petitti. Steve Mandel reported that Tony wanted those 4 automatic bids to guarantee more Big 10 teams into the playoff, which wouldn’t necessarily be with at-large bids. “He needs those four automatic berths for the Big Ten so he can fulfill his dream of creating his league’s NBA Play-In Tournament on conference championship weekend,” reported Mandel. But this demand eventually backfired and has now led to Greg Sankey declaring openly that the SEC had “given up too much.”
“We had our athletics directors meetings in May, where they said we’ve given up too much, perhaps in the college football playoff. The allocations currently made for other champions are to displace our teams or move into the top four. We will continue to work on those.” Sankey then proposed the idea of a 5+11 model expanded to 16 teams with 11 at-large bids. “They talked about — I’ll call it a 5-11 model — and our own ability to earn those berths… The question is, why wouldn’t that be fine? Why wouldn’t we do that? We talked about 16 with them,” said Greg Sankey. The idea may seem simple, like 5+11, but it may not be that simple after all.
First and foremost, not everyone in the SEC is sold on the idea of a 5+11 format. For instance, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin proposed straight seeding of 16 top teams irrespective of conference. Then there are also discussions in the conference to add a ninth league game in the SEC, but teams want assurances that losing that game won’t affect their playoff chances. Even though ESPN is ready to give them the extra money for that game, they will play. For now, the whole process will drag on, and it looks like CFB will eventually need a commissioner for football to tackle these problems.
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