The College Football Playoff was already set for expansion from 12 teams to 14 in 2026 but those plans appear close to being scrapped for a new, potentially less diverse format.
League commissioners emerged from meetings just days ago where talk of a 16-team playoff reportedly developed. While more teams vying for a national championship would mean more football and more competition, the format could be more detrimental for the sport than meets the eye.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey proposed for his conference and the Big Ten to be entitled to four automatic bids each, leaving the the value of conference championships out on the cutting room floor.
On Tuesday, he walked that back slightly after meeting with SEC head coaches. His model would offer five automatic bids for each conference champion with the other 11 being reserved for the highest ranked remaining teams. That would go hand-in-hand with the straight-seeding proposal made in previous meetings.
"They talked about -- I'll call it a 5+11 model -- and our own ability to earn those berths," Sankey said (h/t ESPN). "... At the coaching level, the question is, why wouldn't that be fine? Why wouldn't we do that? We talked about 16 with them. So, good conversation, not a destination, but the first time I've had the ability to go really in depth with ideas with them."
Latest College Football Playoff proposal will dilute the competition
While Sankey's concession to keep conference champions in the competition is valiant, bowing to the straight-seeding format will just invite the SEC and Big Ten to dominate moving forward.
In last season's final CFP rankings, 10 of the top 16 teams were SEC or Big Ten programs. There's little reason to believe a similar result won't happen again in 2025 or in 2026 when this supposed format change is set to be enacted.
Only SEC and Big Ten fans want to see the CFP turn into a monopolized version of the once-discussed Super League. The rest of the sport would suffer just to fill those two conferences' coffers and boost TV rankings.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin apparently wants to use the nuclear option and leave the playoff for the Top 16 ranked teams regardless of conference championships. He told reporters Tuesday he understood that not everyone will be made happy but at least numbers wouldn't lie.
"There's still flaws in every system," he said. "Somehow the formula for how they figure out the [CFP] teams has to change." Though it should be noted that his Rebels were ranked No. 14 last year and just missed out on the CFP.
There's still a lot of time before any final decisions are made on the new CFP format but fans shouldn't be surprised if Sankey's opinion is weighed more heavily than others when they are.