CHICAGO — On Wednesday here, the 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director gathered for their annual fall College Football Playoff meeting.
Plenty was on the agenda: a discussion over the playoff’s governance structure, more work on long-form agreements and a review of an organizational study from the consulting firm Korn Ferry.
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What was missing: a real, serious discussion over the future playoff format.
“We didn’t talk a lot about format,” CFP executive director Rich Clark said.
Perhaps that’s because a new strategy is emerging?
Power conference commissioners are exploring a new working group made up of their own athletic directors — two to three from each the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 — to consider a variety of CFP formats, those with knowledge of the plans tell Yahoo Sports.
As a launching point to the discussion, several Big Ten school administrators are socializing a concept to grant each power conference league an equal number of automatic qualifiers in a field of more than 20 teams. However, administrators caution that such a format must garner the support of the SEC. According to a CFP policy passed last year, the Big Ten and SEC, both together, must agree on a format for it to be approved.
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But the first step is formalizing the working group of athletic directors from each of the four power leagues — a move that was expected to be further explored here in Chicago in meetings of the commissioners of those four leagues. If the working group is formalized, various formats are expected to be under consideration, ranging from 16 to 28 to even 32 teams.
What will the College Football Playoff look like in the years ahead? (John Adams/Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
If no format agreement is reached for the 2026 playoff — leaders are working under a deadline that expires in two months — the playoff is likely to remain at 12 teams.
Clark told reporters here Wednesday that the CFP Management Committee is “comfortable” with remaining at 12 teams next year, which is “probably why they are not too pressed in rushing to a decision,” he said.
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There are no additional full CFP meetings scheduled this year, but Clark — without discussing the power-league-led AD working group — says he expects “smaller group sessions” among commissioners and others.
“After that, they will bring [their work] back to the bigger group,” he said.
Inside the meeting room Wednesday, power conference commissioners shared with others the potential plans to form the AD working group.
The concept that Big Ten athletic directors are socializing is notable. It is an about-face from the previous proposals made by Big Ten conference and school officials that would have granted an unequal number of automatic berths to the four power leagues. In a 16-team concept originally proposed, the SEC and Big Ten received twice the number of automatic bids (4) as the ACC and Big 12 (2), followed by one spot for the best non-power league champion and three at-large selections — a 4-4-2-2-1-3 idea.
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In the latest socialized concept, all four power leagues would be granted the same number of auto bids — perhaps three or four — with one or two spots designated for the Sun Belt, Pac-12, Mountain West, C-USA, American and MAC. There would be a pool of as many as six at-large selections if the format is 24 teams.
Such an expansion would likely necessitate the elimination of conference championship games and could trigger a renegotiation of the CFP’s deal with ESPN. CFP officials signed a memorandum of understanding last spring that only covers a 12- or 14-team playoff.
The concept is only in the socialization stage and may be met with pushback, specifically from the SEC, where league presidents balked at a 28-team proposal from Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti last month. Expanding beyond 16 teams and eliminating the SEC’s money-making conference title game are no small decisions for league administrators.
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For months now, College Football Playoff leaders have found themselves in a quagmire related to any decision over a future format. This year’s playoff is the second version of the 12-team postseason, with automatic qualifiers for the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large selections.
However, next year begins a new six-year contract with CFP television partner ESPN, and officials have used the new deal to examine — for more than a year now — an expansion and format change to the postseason.
The problem: Those in power want something different.
Big Ten officials, publicly and privately leading the charge for expansion, support a more NFL-like postseason system where conferences are awarded playoff berths through auto bids — a move to limit the subjectivity of the selection committee, enhance the November conference race and increase the scheduling of marquee non-conference games.
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While a majority of SEC athletic directors originally supported the Big Ten’s 16-team, 4-4-2-2-1-3 format — to the lengths of even discussing season-ending inner-conference play-in games — their coaches pushed back on the idea during spring meetings in May. That, combined with the political pushback and resistance from the ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame, sent the idea crashing down.
In its place, many SEC coaches publicly supported a 16-team format with a bigger at-large pool — a 5+11 concept that kept in existence the five auto bids for conference champions and added four more at-large spots.
Other league officials jumped on board with that plan as well, including the Big 12, ACC and commissioners from the non-power FBS conferences. However, the Big Ten’s resistance for any format with so few automatic qualifiers has stymied conversations and paused any decision.
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Playoff leaders must decide on next year’s format by Dec. 1 — a deadline set by TV partner ESPN.
In a positive sign, officials crossed one obstacle in the playoff debate over the last few weeks. Two power leagues — the SEC and then the ACC — moved to a nine-game conference schedule, aligning with the Big 12 and Big Ten to assure that each of the four is now playing the same amount of league games.
