SEC, Big Ten Clash Over Changes to CFP Format: Report
SEC, Big Ten Clash Over Changes to CFP Format: Report originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The College Football Playoff format is likely going to change and/or expand in the near future, but how and when is going to depend on the leadership of the two conferences with the most power and sway: the SEC and the Big Ten.
Advertisement
Ross Dellenger, senior college football reporter for Yahoo Sports, reported that FBS leadership gathered in North Carolina on Wednesday, June 18, to hear proposed formatting adjustments from CFP executive director Rich Clark and his group of analysts.
The CFP instituted a 12-team field for the first time following the 2024 regular season. Though, despite the financial success of the new playoff system, several criticisms were levied against it from both inside and outside the CFP structure.
Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith runs upfield as Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade pursues during the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in 2021.Kyle Robertson / The Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY Network
"The Big Ten wants a playoff where access is more like the NFL structure, determined through automatic qualifiers based on conference standings to limit the subjectivity of the selection committee," Dellenger wrote. "And the league also supports all four leagues — including the SEC and ACC — to play nine conference games as the Big Ten and Big 12 do."
Advertisement
Dellenger added that the SEC is more concerned with expanding the CFP field with strength of conference and schedule playing the largest roles in the selection process.
"The SEC moved away from [the Big Ten's suggested] playoff format after its coaches publicly pushed back against it three weeks ago during the conference's spring meetings, instead now working toward a format that provides a bigger at-large pool, such as a 16-team model with five automatic qualifiers for conference champions and 11 at-large selections (5+11)," Dellenger continued.
The Big Ten and SEC have joint control over any future formatting changes to the CFP, Dellenger said.
Related: ACC Dynasty or College Football Playoff Bust?
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 19, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
19 minutes ago
- USA Today
Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer discusses how he's trying to improve his NFL Draft stock
Illini quarterback Luke Altmyer discusses how he's trying to improve his NFL Draft stock In 2023, he had a 13-10 TD pass to INT ratio, 7.0 yards per attempt and a passer rating of 131.9. Last season, he improved those numbers to 22-6, 7.8 and 144.0 If you look at national college football starting quarterback power rankings, you'll often see Illinois Fighting Illini signal caller Luke Altmyer near the top. Among Big Ten QB1s, Altmyer is the highest tier of power rankings. However, if you look at NFL Draft prospect rankings for 2026, you won't often see Altmyer's name. This, despite all that he's accomplished at the collegiate level thus far. Altmyer has another chance this year at Illinois to get his name into the draft prospect conversation. When you look at his career arc, it's very likely that the Starkville, MS native and Ole Miss transfer will do so. In 2023, he had a 13-10 TD pass to INT ratio, 7.0 yards per attempt and a passer rating of 131.9. Last season, while leading the Illini to a 10 win season that included a New Year's bowl victory, he improved those numbers to 22-6, 7.8 and 144.0 To quote Disco Stu from The Simpsons, "if these trends Altmyer was on hand for Illini Night at Wrigley Field, meeting the media at a private function just outside the Friendly Confines. The Illinois quarterback would later sing the seventh inning stretch of Cubs vs Brewers, alongside his coach Bret Bielema, who told the fans who had traveled in from Wisconsin to "sit down." Prior to the distinctive "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" rendition, Altmyer provided some memorable soundbites. Asked what he's doing to work on his game, and improve his NFL Draft stock, he answered: "All areas, physically, I want to get better at my strength, my speed, my agility, my body control. "There's so many things that scouts and teams look at within a player that can go and help their team, and that's what I'm doing every single day. "It's what I did this morning, you know, to get stronger, to work on my balance, my health, my ability to sustain the season without injury, all that stuff. So I'm working really hard to do it. "So hopefully they see that on the field in 2025, but intangibly, it's those things I work on every single day too. I mean, the scouts and those NFL teams that pay the big bucks, they look into every little bit. So I just try to do whatever I can to be in that position one day, but there's tons of areas in my game I can get better at." On this current Illini squad, one that is widely considered to be a leading College Football Playoff contender in 2025, the individual player with the highest NFL Draft stock is edge rusher Gabe Jacas. "He's gonna make a lot of money in the NFL one day, probably," Altmyer said of Jacas. There are many factors in Altmyer's favor, one of which is his having experience in the two biggest college football conferences. While it's technically a "power four" these days, it's really more of a "power two" in the Big Ten and SEC. Altmyer has experience playing in both, and with that he's on the radar of coaches and personnel in both the south and the north. These people all know NFL people, and that can only help his professional prospects. Altmyer discussed his decision to leave Mississippi for Illinois, and why he decided to stay when the SEC offers came rolling again this offseason. "It's a long way from home, I'll tell you that," Altmyer added. "Out of high school, I didn't have a Big 10 offer at all, so it's something that's super foreign to me. I didn't grow up watching Big 10 football, and so it was definitely a mental hump that I had to get over, but it was the right thing to do. I knew that hump and that change and that growth would only bring out the best to me. "So it was definitely difficult, because it was change and growth, new people, new area, new everything, but I know that it's that hump that makes me who I am every single day. "So it's been great. My family's grown to love this place, Illinois, Chicago, Champaign, whatever it is. And so my friends, they all got their their calendar circled, all for the dates that they'll be up here to watch, and it's just it's a good time to be a little football fan."
NBC Sports
21 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Table the expansion talk. The College Football Playoff should stay at 12 teams.
Nicole Auerbach and Joshua Perry unpack and share their thoughts on the latest controversial changes to the College Football Playoff seeding ahead of the 2025 season. Another day, another college commissioners' meeting — and another conversation about potential College Football Playoff expansion that has ended without resolution. Or, as I like to put it, just your typical Wednesday in June. 'Pretty much everything's on the table and they're taking a good look at all of it,' CFP executive director Rich Clark told reporters in Asheville, N.C. 'So I wouldn't say there's a leading contender right now for them, but they're taking a fresh look at it.' Round and round we go on a topic that never seems to go away completely. Even though there's an easy (if boring) solution: The CFP should stay as is — at 12 teams. Now, I get why there's always at least one loud voice clamoring to expand the field. College football is a sport that has crowned its champion by polls and by computer algorithm. There's always been incredible interest in a playoff model, even when college football didn't have one. Then we got a four-team bracket, approved in 2012 and implemented in time for the 2014 season. Just one year into the 12-team era, commissioners now demand further expansion. The Big Ten has pushed for a 16-team bracket with multiple automatic qualifiers (AQs) per league, with the Big Ten and SEC each nabbing four designated spots — the so-called 4-4-2-2-1 model, which grants them double the number of AQs of the ACC and Big 12 with one spot designated for the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion. The SEC stunned those in Big Ten circles with its coaches publicly pushing for a 5+11 model — one AQ per league and the Group of 5, with 11 at-large spots — at its spring meetings last month. The SEC's interest in the 5+11 model aligns well with what's best for both the ACC and Big 12, two leagues that did not want to accept a model that essentially defined them as second-tier conferences. The posturing and preening over the past month has left the sport in a messy spot. It's also uncharted territory, because any format changes made for the 2026-27 season do not require unanimity. Changes do require the Big Ten and SEC to agree on them, though, and the relationship between the two is in a far more tenuous place than it was six weeks ago. Multiple sources in the Big Ten have told NBC Sports that the conference will not support the 5+11 model if the SEC remains at eight conference games. (The Big Ten plays nine.) As the CFP expansion debate stretches further into the doldrums of the summer, even the Big Ten's coaches are jumping into the fray. It is quite possible that the current Big Ten-SEC standoff delays or stymies bracket expansion. Any format changes for the 2026-27 season need to be decided on and communicated to ESPN by Dec. 1. But if the Big Ten and SEC can't come to an agreement on a specific 16-team format by that date, the expectation is that the Playoff would simply move forward in its current iteration — with 12 total teams, including five conference champions and seven at-large selections. And, frankly, that is the best possible outcome. The 12-team CFP worked out exceptionally well in its first year. More teams had access to the sport's premier postseason than ever before, which meant dozens of teams that previously would have been eliminated were still fighting for spots in the final weeks of the regular season. Increased access led to increased engagement by fans. First-round games on campus were as electric as we had hoped they would be. Even early round blowouts turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as they set up some great quarterfinal games and excellent, evenly matched semifinals. Even with just one season's worth of data, it's clear that there aren't actually going to be 12 teams truly capable of winning a national title, that there are perhaps only six to eight built to get to the finish line. But it is obvious, too, that the very best teams in college football will fall within the 12 teams picked to participate year in and year out. Teams No. 13 or 14, on the wrong side of the cut line, were flawed teams that had lost to lesser opponents multiple times. The first team out of any field will always complain, but that exclusion felt far different from the Bowl Championship System era or even the four-team bracket days. In the past, we all worried that the best team in the country might not have a chance to play for a national championship. That's no longer a fear in a 12-team world, because the buffer is so wide. The only real problem with Year 1 of the 12-team CFP era was the way its convoluted seeding system worked — and that issue got fixed this offseason. Straight seeding 1-12 means a balanced bracket, and it also means that the four best teams (per the selection committee) are the four teams that get first-round byes. That is how the system should work, and it will give us more competitive, evenly matched early-round games. The 12-team format worked well, and it's going to work even better with straight seeding. But this sport's leaders are impatient; they started discussing expanding beyond 12 teams before a single CFP game was played last winter. They assume bigger is better just because. Their bloated leagues need more access points, so they like the idea of 16 more than they do 12, even if the status quo is a pretty great solution to the problems that have ailed college football. The current format is fundamentally fair, and it will help the sport continue to evolve from its regional roots to its status as a national behemoth. Ultimately, the Big Ten and SEC will surely figure out a way to work together again. The current standstill may just be a momentary (fortuitous?) blip. But while we're here and while we're paused, I hope the sport's leaders take a second to look around. The grass isn't always greener someplace else. Sometimes, it's best to stay put. Lawrence Jackson Jr. discusses recent comments made by Jaguars general manager James Gladstone about Travis Hunter, sharing why the 22-year-old rookie will likely be a productive fantasy football wide receiver in 2025. Dan Le Batard and the Shipping Container lay out some of the further-reaching effects of NIL at the college sports level, examining how youth sports can be affected and players risk being turned into 'commodities'.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Colorado official visit gives OL Xavier Payne flip option 'to think about'
The official visit slate has been a busy one for Xavier Payne this month. The Central New York native, now prepping at Miami (Fla.) Edison High School, took a midweek official visit to Colorado most recently and Coach Prime's program made a strong impression on the longtime Florida State Seminoles verbal commitment. Advertisement "It was great," Payne told Rivals. "The best part was being to sit down with the offensive line coaches and truly building that connection while getting to see their plan for me and how I fit into the program. "As I was sitting in the room it really hit me how much NFL experience is on the staff. So not only do they know how to get there because they did it, but also because they have sent so many in their years of coaching." It was the big blocker's first time in Boulder. "The main coaches with me were the entire offensive line group and mainly coach Gunnar (White)," Payne said. "The place has definitely given me some things to think about. Advertisement "I meshed really well there. Don't count them out of my recruitment." CLASS OF 2026 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State CLASS OF 2027 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State Payne even got to match wits with one of the most notable Buff players at the position in Jordan Seaton. The former five-star ran into the top recruit and something clicked. "Me and Seaton actually got on the board for a little and compared my high school plays and showed me how they would run it," he said. "We both love the game deeply and love talking football. Like him sitting with me wasn't because of the coaches, he had just popped up in the offensive line room to hang a poster up and we just hit it off." Advertisement The Freshman All-American's time with the freshman-to-be emphasized how CU could potentially utilize the versatile blocker should he choose the program. "They visualize me as a tackle and told me exactly what I have to fix to become a great tackle rather than interior," he said. "They also showed me to the drills on exactly how those issues would be fixed before college." Payne, who has also taken an official visit to Syracuse and plans to return to Florida State this weekend, says the December pledge to the Seminoles remains a strong one. "This weekend will reveal a lot," he said. "After FSU I'm done. And where I'm at is where I'm at. My recruitment will be shut down by the end of this month or early next month."
