Big Ten, SEC push for College Football Playoff seeding to be set by committee rankings

NEW ORLEANS The Big Ten and SEC support a change in the College Football Playoffs seeding process for next season that would eliminate the reservation of top-four seeds and first-round byes for conference champions and instead have the selection committees rankings set the seeds for the 12-team field.

Advertisement Im prepared to vote for a seeding change, but it has to be unanimous, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday after athletic directors and other officials from his conference met with their counterparts from the Big Ten.

Leaders of the wealthiest and most powerful leagues met in the French Quarter for about five hours to discuss a range of issues facing college sports, including the implementation of a revenue sharing system with athletes that is part of a $2.8 billion settlement of antitrust lawsuits and the prospect of reforming how the NCAA is governed.

They also talked about the future of the CFP, which expanded to 12 teams ahead of the 2024 season and will remain mostly the same for the upcoming 2025 season with the possible exception of how the teams are seeded before the formats original contract runs out ahead of 2026.

Were in favor of going to a straight seeding, where theres no difference between rankings and seedings, like we had this year, Petitti said.

Were in support of that for next year.

The 12-team format implemented in 2024 was constructed when there were five power conferences, and it emphasized league titles by reserving the top four spots for the highest ranked of those champions.

After conference realignment tore apart the Pac-12 and whittled the Power 5 to a Power 4, an adjustment was made to reserve five spots in the 12-team CFP field for conference champions instead of six, but the guarantee of the top four seeds for league champs remained in place.

That led to a strange inaugural 12-team bracket.

Mountain West champion Boise State was the No.

3 seed despite finishing ninth in the committees final rankings.

Big 12 champion Arizona State, which was ranked 12th, was the No.

4 seed.

Had the seedings matched the rankings, Texas and Penn State would have received byes along with Big Ten champion Oregon and SEC champ Georgia, which were ranked No.

1 and 2, respectively.

Advertisement The jumbling of the seeding also pushed Ohio State down two notches to the No.

8 seed, setting up a second-round matchup with Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

The Buckeyes blew out the Ducks on their way to a national title.

Had the seedings matched the rankings, Oregon would have played the winner of an 8-9 game between Indiana and Boise State.

The committee just puts in for the 12 teams next year, it just says these are the 12 teams in the order that they fall based on their judgment and the criteria theyre given in the selection room.

They just go one through 12, Petitti said.

The format would still protect five spots for the highest ranked conference champions, even if some of them were ranked outside the committees final top 12, as ACC champion Clemson was last season.

The Tigers were ranked 16th but seeded 12th.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips and Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez have said they would be cautious about changing the seeding after just one season of the 12-team format.

Phillips noted that the NFLs playoff format rewards division winners with home games in its wild-card round over teams that finish with better records but dont win their division.

A change in the seeding to remove the conference championship requirement would open up the possibility that Notre Dame could receive a first-round bye.

Petitti, Sankey, Phillips, Nevarez and the other six FBS conference commissioners, who make up the CFP management committee along with Notre Dames athletic director, will meet Tuesday in Dallas.

As for changes to the CFP format for 2026 and beyond, Sankey and Petitti had little to say publicly.

I think thats something that we owe our colleagues first, and I think Ive been consistent in that observation for us, Sankey said.

Well get to what the 26 format looks like in the future.

Advertisement But whats coming seems likely.

I think there will be expansion, Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter said.

Whether that means a field of 14 or 16 teams and multiple automatic bids for each power conference is still to be determined.

But it will be determined by the SEC and Big Ten.

The Playoffs new contractual agreements with the FBS conferences and Notre Dame that kick in after this year remove a longstanding requirement of unanimous consent among the group to make changes to the Playoff format.

Under the new CFP deal, the Big Ten and SEC can push through their desired format.

So that requires us to get to consensus to make a meaningful recommendation, if any, to our colleagues in other leagues.

And it also requires us to get their input and to give them an opportunity to weigh in on whatever it is that were thinking about.

So its by definition we need to get to consensus among the two leagues.

Thats the beginning of that process, Petitti said.

Sankey said the 2026 format is a small part of next weeks agenda.

I think we both individually owe our colleagues an update on our thinking, Sankey said.

Is it alignment? Im not going to use that word.

Weve got our issues to work through.

(Photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images).

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