The future of the College Football Playoff beyond the 2025 season is highly in question, with the SEC and Big Ten seemingly preparing for a future without the postseason as it is currently formatted.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petiti express doubts about the future of the College Football Playoff, and the Big Ten and SEC will form an “advisory committee,” according to a report from Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger. A few days after Friday's announcement, a committee was formed to explore the future of college sports.
One of the major changes likely to occur as a result of the new committee is a change to the playoff format, which could be further expanded, according to Delenger's report.
“Given that the four faction leagues have swelled to 16-18 members each following a recent wave of realignment, this format is again under the microscope for further investigation.” Mr. Derenger wrote. “Petitti has discussed an expanded model with the commissioner that includes 14 and 16 teams with multiple automatic qualifiers to major conferences, sources told Yahoo Sports.”
Since the Pac-12 is no longer a viable “power” conference, there will almost certainly be changes to the automatic qualifiers going forward. But reports of multiple automatic qualifiers in major conferences will sound like annoying ringing in the ears to Big 12 fans.
The inclusion of multiple Big Ten and SEC teams is easy to justify, but it's not something the other conferences would just hand over without some kind of fight.
