LAS VEGAS — The Big Ten commissioner doubled down on the league’s preference for multiple automatic qualifiers in the next version of the College Football Playoff on Tuesday, increasing the likelihood of a showdown with the Southeastern Conference when the format for 2026 is decided.
At the league’s football media days, Tony Petitti said any change that adds at-large bids and increases the discretion and role of a selection committee — a format the SEC and others have shown a preference for — “will have a difficult time getting support of the Big Ten.”
Petitti also bolstered the idea of a weekend’s worth of play-in games for what — under one of the best-known proposals — would be four automatic bids for the Big Ten and SEC in a 16-team playoff, even though the games could put the Big Ten’s top-seeded teams in jeopardy of being shut out of the CFP. The playoff expanded to 12 teams last season.
“There are 18 members in the Big Ten, you have 17 possible opponents and you play nine,” Petitti said. “There’s a lot of discrepancy. Let alone making comparisons across leagues, there’s a lot of issues about how you compare teams inside the Big Ten. … Where we came down is we were willing to take that risk.”
Though there is a Dec. 1 deadline for expanding the playoff for 2026, Petitti said he wouldn’t put any deadline on it, echoing a sentiment SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey voiced earlier this month when he said the 12-team format could stay in place until the two leagues agree on something new.
Petitti said recent meetings between Big Ten and SEC athletic directors have produced good results and he expects another such summit would do the same.
“The goal would be to bring people back together, have a conversation about what we think works, then kind of go from there,” he said.
The Big Ten and SEC will ultimately decide the new format, with input from the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences, along with Notre Dame and the six smaller conferences who are part of the system.
Also on Tuesday, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said his preference was one with five automatic bids and the rest at-large.
“Fairness and access should also be part of the equation,” Phillips said, while backing the work of the selection committee that would have a bigger role with 11 at-large selections to sort through.
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