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New York Times
7 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
2015 Georgia, a decade later: How the season that sparked the Richt-to-Smart transition holds up
ATHENS, Ga. — That season, that most dramatic of seasons, has gone down in Georgia football legend. Not for the glory but the drama. The popular head coach who was watching his Hall of Fame tenure end. The rumors of dissension among his assistants. The quixotic quarterback decision that sealed the end. Advertisement And yet what gets forgotten is how well, even a month into the 2015 season, things were going. Greyson Lambert breaking an NCAA record and helping send Steve Spurrier into retirement. Brian Schottenheimer looking like a good hire. Jeremy Pruitt saying all the right things. The confidence within the administration and fan base that the Georgia Way was the right way and could still work. Then came the rain. That's the first thing people remember about the afternoon. The good feelings were washed away, precipitating a downfall that in retrospect was inevitable. The day Nick Saban and Alabama came to Athens and told everyone that no, the old Georgia way could no longer work. One image remains from that dreary — at least for Georgia — afternoon: During pregame, an Alabama assistant standing alone near midfield, looking at his players with a contented smile. Almost like Kirby Smart knew something. The Georgia Way was shorthand for the school and athletic department resisting what was seen as the Saban-ization of college sports: wild spending on facilities and football staff; win at all costs, literally and figuratively. Georgia did spend, but it was the last school in the SEC to build a full-length indoor facility, which became symbolic. After one short, pointless practice in a 30-yard indoor facility late in the 2014 season, Pruitt, then in his first year as Georgia defensive coordinator, sat with beat writers and bemoaned that other schools recruited against Georgia by saying: 'How important is football to Georgia if they don't have an indoor practice facility?' Pruitt's comments ruffled administrators, not for the first or last time. Still, his defense and recruiting had energized the program and head coach Mark Richt, for whom 2015 would be his 15th season as head coach. Advertisement Longtime offensive coordinator Mike Bobo had left to become Colorado State's head coach. Richt replaced him with what seemed like a coup: Schottenheimer, who left his job as the OC for the St. Louis Rams. Richt had also made another change, hiring strength and conditioning coordinator Mark Hocke, who had never been a coordinator but had been the No. 2 at Alabama. Neither hire would pan out. But outwardly, the signs were good through September, as Georgia started 4-0 and rose to No. 8 in the AP poll. The high moment of the run — and the season, it would turn out — was a 52-20 win over South Carolina, in which Lambert set an NCAA record for single-game completion percentage (24-for-25). Lambert had transferred in from Virginia just a month before preseason practice and won the starting job in an upset. Spurrier, long Georgia's nemesis, retired less than a month later. It set up a showdown with another nemesis, Alabama, which came into Sanford Stadium on Oct. 1 already with one loss. Georgia was slightly favored, and during game week, several Georgia boosters spoke proudly about the way their school conducted its business. 'I'm not willing to sell my soul to the devil just to say we won,' Dink NeSmith, a former Board of Regents chairman, told USA Today. 'There's a certain pride, without being condescending, where we try to hold ourselves to a higher standard.' It didn't take long for people to change their thinking. 'We were looking at it through rose-colored glasses,' said Jon Stinchcomb, a former Georgia and NFL offensive lineman and member of Georgia's Athletic Board. 'The perception didn't match reality. Very quickly after that Alabama game, there was a realization: 'Oh, boy, we aren't what we thought we were.' In so many different ways.' Smart, asked what he remembers about that game, first mentioned the rain. Then Alabama tailback Derrick Henry and receiver Calvin Ridley making some big plays. And also, late in the game, Alabama's sideline getting angry because Georgia tailback Nick Chubb broke a long run. 'They didn't want to give up 100 yards to him,' Smart said. 'He had had a streak going, but I think that long run gave it to him. But it was later in the game.' Advertisement The final score: Alabama 38, Georgia 10. Jere Morehead, then and now Georgia's president, said the game brought home that there was still a lot of distance between the programs. 'I think so. Because you remember going into that, I believe the point spread was about 1. It was expected to be a highly competitive game,' Morehead said. 'So I think people were surprised it wasn't a competitive game.' A week later at Tennessee, Chubb suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the first quarter. Georgia still jumped ahead 24-3, only to blow the lead and lose 38-31. The next game, Georgia pulled out a 9-6 win over Missouri. But the offense was sputtering, and with a bye week before Florida, the coaches decided to try something. Faton Bauta, the third-string quarterback, had not played that season. But he had running ability, and his teammates liked playing for him. So with much secrecy, the Bulldogs gave him first-team practice reps, then unleashed him as the starter in Jacksonville — but with Schottenheimer's calls not catering much to Bauta's running ability. The result was four interceptions and a 27-3 loss. That was it for the power brokers. Stinchcomb, then in his first year on the athletic board, said there were 'tangible conversations by significant people' that it was time for a coaching change. Morehead also remembered that as a key point. 'There was just a lot of things going on that were certainly creating anxiety among our supporters,' Morehead said. Indeed, there were a lot of things. Richt, Pruitt and those on that staff have never divulged specifics on the dissension among them. Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker came the closest after the season, alluding to a 'mutiny,' without elaboration. (Rocker was hired by Pruitt when he became the Tennessee coach in 2018.) Morehead acknowledged he was also 'hearing a lot of things' from athletic director Greg McGarity, who declined to comment for this story. 'But I certainly heard the same things that other people were hearing,' Morehead said. 'How much was true and not true, I don't know. I'm not really sure how much of that entered into the decision.' Players were mostly in the dark. Jeb Blazevich, a tight end on that team, told me for the book 'Attack the Day': 'We heard about a lot of stuff on the second floor (where the coaches' offices were). We'd be hearing all this drama, and we were wondering: Are we still practicing today? How's this going to work if all this stuff is going on?' Advertisement There was a rumor at one point that Pruitt had been fired, and Richt felt the need to put out a tweet to assure the public that Pruitt was very much in his office working. Pruitt had been hired before the 2014 season, turning around the defense and bringing ideas about practice and recruiting that he'd learned working for Saban. Pruitt had also seen how Alabama gave Saban financial support and wasn't shy about expressing what he saw in Athens. 'He wasn't wrong in a lot of his critique,' Stinchcomb said. '(But) it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It's not like you're wrong. But how you're doing it is.' Richt had been a good soldier about the administrative support, never complaining publicly or even much privately. He didn't complain that Georgia was one of the only SEC schools to test and suspend athletes for marijuana, causing him to lose key players for key games. When previous AD Damon Evans declined to sign off on raises for assistants, Richt personally paid them, leading to an NCAA secondary violation in 2011. Two years later, Morehead became Georgia's president, after rising through the academic ranks at the school. He told The Athletic recently that he thought the school's approach needed to change. 'Well, I had the view that we have to be excellent in academics and athletics and that you can do both, and you can do both well,' Morehead said. 'And I felt that we needed to get our alumni believing in both the academic and athletic excellence of the institution. And over time, I think we've demonstrated that we could be successful, not only in producing record years in federal research grants and Rhodes scholars, but we could also win national football championships. I really thought that was possible here. 'And so I understood we have to spend money to do it.' Georgia finally signed off on the long-awaited indoor facility, and another project — a renovation to Sanford Stadium to include a swanky recruiting area — was also being discussed. But as the 2015 season neared an end, it became clear Richt would not be the coach to benefit from it. South Carolina officials, looking for Spurrier's replacement, were in Smart's kitchen in Tuscaloosa the first Sunday morning in December, when phones started buzzing: Georgia was firing Richt. That was the day after Georgia's final regular-season game, a win over Georgia Tech, the fourth straight to finish the season. Everyone still liked and respected Richt, who had won two SEC championships, six SEC East titles and 74 percent of his games. But 9-3 wasn't good enough that season, especially with everything going on. The offense had been a disaster under Schottenheimer. Pruitt had alienated the administration. Player development didn't seem up to par, which spoke to the offseason program. Advertisement 'There's a lot that needs to change,' Stinchcomb said. 'And sometimes that's easier to accomplish when there's a big change.' Morehead had known Smart since he was an undergraduate and even had Smart in one of his classes, and they had stayed in touch. Other names were thrown out as possibilities — Dan Mullen, then at Mississippi State, most prominently — but Georgia's search zeroed in on Smart pretty quickly. 'You don't make a change without considering who the other options are,' Morehead said. 'And there were several that were going to be well known, that were going to be available, and (Smart) was among them. And in my mind, at the top of the list.' Still, Smart's being successful was by no means a slam dunk. He didn't have any head-coaching experience. Other coaches from the Saban tree had flopped, like Will Muschamp (another Georgia graduate) at Florida. 'Is it just a homer pick, that former player who is in the right place at the right time, or is it actually a great coach?' Stinchcomb said. 'It certainly was no certainty.' Smart's first season amplified the uncertainty: 8-5, with home losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech. Meanwhile, Richt went 9-4 at Miami, a one-win improvement. Morehead said he heard from 'plenty' of people questioning Georgia's decision. 'But I still felt that the end of that first year that we were on a trajectory for greatness,' Morehead said. 'I didn't know it would happen the very next year where we, you know, came within one play of winning the national championship (in his second year).' That would be the infamous second-and-26 loss to Alabama. 'But you know,' Morehead added, 'We came within one point of winning a national championship in 2012.' That would be the infamous end of the SEC championship, another loss to Alabama. This one when Richt was coach. Advertisement That remains a hanging regret around Georgia and among the fan base: Richt not getting a title. He remains popular, especially after moving back to Athens following his retirement from Miami. Georgia's program, meanwhile, took off under Smart, aided by financial support from the school, including support staff, the recruiting budget and a fundraising push for facilities. Of course, Smart did plenty himself to take Georgia to the next level, from recruiting to development to coaching. He ended Georgia's national championship drought in 2022, then won another, all with his own players. But when he made the national championship the first time, in 2018, many of the players were holdovers from 2015, recruited by Richt or Pruitt. Richt declined an interview request for this story but wrote in a text, 'I only wish the best for Kirby and Georgia football.' Pruitt went back to Alabama in 2016 as defensive coordinator, then two years later became Tennessee's coach. He was fired after the 2020 season amid an NCAA investigation and is now a high school coach. Reached recently by The Athletic, he said he remains fond of his time in Athens and with Richt. 'In my opinion, coach Richt is one of the best coaches — and men — I have ever been around,' Pruitt said. 'It is amazing, the run coach Richt had, because at the time Georgia was behind in facilities and spending.' Otherwise, Pruitt did not want to comment. Other than one final thought on how much the sport has changed since 2015. 'We look back on that season and think it's a disappointment,' Pruitt said, then started to laugh. 'But nowadays we might make the playoffs.'
Black America Web
4 days ago
- Politics
- Black America Web
Trump Signs EO On College Sports: But What Does It Mean?
On Thursday, President Trump exercised his writing hand and signed an executive order titled 'Saving College Sports,' mandating federal authorities like the Department of Education to have more involvement with universities, especially those public colleges that receive federal funds, to ensure that athletic scholarships and NIL deals remain above board. The order demands that larger universities with massive athletic departments maintain a certain number of scholarships for less lucrative sports. The hope is that this executive order will help quell the massive influx of money for schools to attract big names under the recently created name, image, and likeness deals — known as NIL. 'The future of college sports is under unprecedented threat,' the order says, NPR reports. 'A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women's sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics, drive American superiority at the Olympics and other international competitions, and catalyze hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to fuel American success in myriad ways.' Here's the problem: An executive order is not the law. Think of it as a sternly worded email from the CEO of a company. Yes, it means something, but what really? There is no guarantee that the order will be made a law, but many legal experts believe that it does shine a light on the president's growing interest in sticking his nose in matters that don't concern him. 'This may not be a binding legal framework — but it's absolutely a signal: that the federal government, and now presidential politics, are increasingly willing to intervene in the future of college sports,' Noah Henderson, a professor of sports management at Loyola University Chicago, told NPR. Trump's order comes just one month after a class action settlement called House v. NCAA allowed Division I college athletic departments to pay players directly. 'Absent guardrails to stop the madness and ensure a reasonable, balanced use of resources across collegiate athletic programs that preserves their educational and developmental benefits, many college sports will soon cease to exist,' the order reads. Many believed that the president was planning on creating a college sports commission to sort through some of the more difficult issues facing college sports, (like is all of the player money coming from the universities?) But Trump's order chose to try and add 'guardrails' to 'an out-of-control, rudderless system in which competing university donors engage in bidding wars for the best players, who can change teams each season,' the order reads. From AP News: There has been a dramatic increase in money flowing into and around college athletics, and a sense of chaos. Key court victories won by athletes angry that they were barred for decades from earning income based on their celebrity and from sharing in the billions of revenue they helped generate have gutted the amateurism model long at the heart of college sports. Facing a growing number of state laws undercutting its authority, the NCAA in July 2021 cleared the way for athletes to cash in with NIL deals with brands and sponsors — deals now worth millions. That came mere days after a 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court that found the NCAA cannot impose caps on education-related benefits schools provide to their athletes because such limits violate antitrust law. The NCAA's embrace of NIL deals set the stage for another massive change that took effect July 1: The ability of schools to begin paying millions of dollars to their own athletes, up to $20.5 million per school over the next year. The $2.8 billion House settlement shifts even more power to athletes, who have also won the ability to transfer from school to school without waiting to play. 'We've gotten to the point where government is involved,' Purdue coach Barry Odom said when asked about the Trump order, AP reports. 'Obviously, there's belief it needs to be involved. We'll get it all worked out. The game's been around for a hundred years and it's going to be around 100 more.' Trump Signed An Executive Order On College Sports, But What Does It Mean? was originally published on 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House attorneys, power conferences work out deal to relax NIL collective roadblocks: Sources
LAS VEGAS — Less than a month into the implementation of the House settlement, college sports' new enforcement entity is adjusting its approach. Attorneys for the House plaintiffs have struck an agreement with the power conferences and NCAA officials to amend the decision-making from the industry's new enforcement arm, the College Sports Commission, related to how booster-backed collectives can compensate athletes. Multiple sources spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity. As part of the agreement, the College Sports Commission is expected to treat collectives or any 'school-associated entity' in a similar fashion as other businesses when determining the legitimacy of third-party NIL deals submitted to the CSC's NIL Go clearinghouse. This is a change from the CSC's previously publicized approach. According to a memo sent to schools two weeks ago, the CSC — created and administered by the power conferences — explained that it has denied dozens of athlete deals from collectives because it is holding collectives to a higher threshold, announcing that businesses whose sole existence is to pay athletes (i.e. collectives) cannot meet the definition of a 'valid business purpose.' House plaintiff attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman took issue with that interpretation, sending to the NCAA and power league officials a letter demanding the guidance be retracted and suggesting those rejected deals be reinstated. Kessler, in his letter, threatened to take the issue to the magistrate judge, Nathaniel Cousins, who is presiding over House settlement disputes. Some of the NIL deals that the CSC rejected while applying the previous guidance will be re-evaluated based on the new approach. The interpretation of the 'valid business purpose' rule is not insignificant. It is one of two measurements used by the new CSC's NIL Go clearinghouse to determine the legitimacy of third-party deals. The second is a Deloitte-created 'compensation range' standard that deals must fall within. The change to the valid business purpose standard potentially opens the door for the continuation of school-affiliated, booster-backed collectives to provide athletes with compensation that, if approved by the clearinghouse, does not count against a school's House settlement revenue-share cap. This provides collectives a path to strike deals with athletes as long as those transactions deliver to the public goods and services for a profit for the organization, such as holding athlete merchandise sales, autograph signings and athlete appearances at, for example, golf tournaments. The resolution creates what administrators term more of a 'soft cap' as opposed to a hard cap, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey described it last week in an interview with Yahoo Sports. The expectation is that collectives will create legal ways to provide additional compensation, as Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti described Monday in an interview with Yahoo Sports from Big Ten media days. 'When something works, it gets copied,' he said. 'Things happening out there to provide additional NIL deals for student athletes that make sense and are allowed under rules, you're going to see more versions of that.' The change also, at least for now, prevents a legal challenge from leaders of a group of NIL collectives who began drafting a lawsuit against the CSC's approach. Over the last four years, collectives have served as the driving force for schools to compensate athletes, raising millions in booster money to provide schools a way to recruit and retain players. However, the CSC's original interpretation of the 'valid business purpose' definition, and resulting denials of collective deals, speaks to one of administrators' goals of the settlement — to shift athlete pay from these booster-run organizations to the schools, which are now permitted to directly share revenue with athletes under the capped system that began July 1. That said, many schools are still operating their collectives as a way to, perhaps, circumvent the system. For example, schools continue to operate their collectives — some out of fear that others are doing the same and some believing that the settlement will fail under the weight of legal challenges. 'We know that some people are saying, 'We're not worried because we don't think they can really enforce it!'' Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin told Yahoo Sports last week from SEC media days. 'They don't think NIL contracts are going to get kicked back (by the clearinghouse) or they think they're not going to be able to win long-term (legal challenges) because of players rights.' Ultimately, Sankey suggested, schools hold authority to control their own affiliated collectives. 'For how long have people been begging for guardrails?' Sankey asked. 'Well, now we have guardrails. Those broadly across the country that claim they wanted guardrails need to operate within the guardrails. If you allow what's happened to continue to escalate, there would be a very small number of programs that would be competitive with each other and we'd not have a national sport or a national championship.' The resolution may not completely end what will likely be continuous negotiations over particular enforcement rules between the power leagues controlling the CSC and the House plaintiff attorneys, who hold authority and veto powers over various aspects of the settlement. Petitti cautioned Tuesday that more such negotiations are expected in the future. 'I don't think it will be the last time that an issue comes up in the process,' he said. 'The settlement approval came later than expected. It compressed the time period.' The guidance change may also not prevent future legal challenges over other enforcement aspects, including Deloitte's compensation range concept or the appeals arbitration system that athletes can use for deals denied a second time. The CSC, in its first month of existence, is reliant on athletes submitting deals. Athletes are required to submit any third-party deal of $600 or more to an NIL clearinghouse, NIL Go. Those deals flagged by NIL Go are sent to the CSC and its new leader, Bryan Seeley, to determine an enforcement decision. As of two weeks ago, more than 100 deals were denied and at least 100 more were under review. More than 1,500 deals had been approved.
Associated Press
21-07-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
AAC rebrands as American Conference in move designed to fuel growth in changing college landscape
The American Athletic Conference is rebranding itself as, simply, the American Conference as part of a wide-ranging effort it says is designed to fuel growth and elevate its position in a quickly changing college-sports landscape. The 15-team football conference also on Monday unveiled a new slogan — 'Built To Rise' — and introduced Soar the Eagle as a new mascot. Both will be featured in promotions and public service announcements that air during games involving its teams. By changing names, the conference will get rid of the 'AAC' nickname that often got confused with the Power Four's ACC — Atlantic Coast Conference. It wants to be known as the 'American Conference,' or the 'American.' American's commissioner, Tim Pernetti, has been aggressive about positioning the conference in the name, image and likeness era, announcing earlier this year that all members except Army and Navy would be required to revenue share at least $10 million over the next three seasons; it was the first league to set such a minimum standard. Under the new NIL rules, schools are allowed to share up to $20.5 million in revenue in the 2025-26 season. 'This modernization is rooted in who we are and where we're headed,' Pernetti said. 'It prioritizes clarity, momentum, and the competitive advantage driving every part of our conference forward.' These are fraught days for the Group of Five conferences, which includes the American, and whose teams have been constant targets in an era of realignment. Since 2023, the American has lost Cincinnati, UCF and SMU but has added seven teams: Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB, UT-San Antonio and Army (for football). It now has 15 teams. Army and Tulane stayed on the fringe of the race for a spot in the College Football Playoff race last season. ___ AP college sports:
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Why the Big Ten desperately wants to rig College Football Playoff
At least Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti dropped any pretense that his vision for the future format of the College Football Playoff would be a boon for anyone other than his conference. Petitti, as he plainly stated in a recent interview with Joel Klatt of Fox Sports, works at the behest of one conference. "Representing the Big Ten," Petitti said, "that's my job." If Petitti's playoff plan seems rigged in favor of the Big Ten, that's only because it is. Petitti wants a playoff format that's all upside, no risk, for the Big Ten. Shocking, right? Herein lies the persistent problem in determining a playoff format for 2026 and beyond. It's not that the conference commissioners who shape the playoff lack ideas. It's that their ideas are so self-serving. With no overarching commissioner looking out for the good of the game or its postseason, the individual conferences hit an impasse in their playoff format negotiations. Big Ten wants to reduce role of playoff selection committee Petitti, in his interview with Klatt, outlined the Big Ten's preference for a 4+4+2+2+1 playoff format. In this 16-team playoff plan, 13 of the 16 spots would be dispersed via automatic bids. The Big Ten and SEC would be assigned four automatic bids apiece. Two apiece would go to the ACC and Big 12, with another auto bid going to the next-best conference champion, leaving just three at-large bids for a selection committee to determine. "We're not asking to be handed anything," Petitti said. Actually, you are. You're asking to be handed 25% of the playoff spots before the season begins. Why should the Big Ten and SEC start with twice as many bids as the ACC and Big 12? Well, because "of historic strength and where we think programs are," Petitti explained. If history is our guide, how about a bid for 18-time national champion Yale? I'm kidding, of course. Yale shouldn't receive a bid based on history, no more than the Big Ten should be guaranteed twice as many auto bids as the ACC, which has produced as many national champions as the Big Ten since the start of the Bowl Championship Series era. The ACC and Big 12 quickly balked at Petitti's stacked-deck plan, and the SEC later soured on the idea. It's not that the SEC felt sorry for the ACC and Big 12. It's more that the SEC worries the auto-bid plan would not reward it enough. The SEC recast its desires toward a 16-team playoff featuring 11 at-large bids, and the SEC is campaigning for the selection committee to more heavily weight strength of schedule metrics, which tend to reflect well on SEC teams. And, so, here we stand, with no approved playoff format past this season, with each conference angling for a plan they think serves them best. Tony Petitti playoff plan all upside, no risk for Big Ten While I dislike any idea, like Petitti's plan, that would stack the deck and award bids based on a conference's preseason clout, I acknowledge the 4+4+2+2+1 format must look pretty good from where the Big Ten commissioner sits. It would achieve Petitti's objectives on how to reshape college football. Petitti wants to: ∎ Reduce the role of the selection committee. As Petitti puts it: "Let them focus on seeding. Let them focus on the last three at-larges." In other words, he wants to reduce the subjectivity of the selection process at the end of the season, in favor of a stacked deck that awards bids based on conference affiliation and conference standings. But, his plan won't succeed in curtailing controversy, because debates will rage about the committee's last-three-in and how they seed the field. ∎ Encourage Big Ten teams to play tougher non-conference games. In Petitti's plan, most bids would be awarded based on conference performance, so, teams could schedule tough non-conference matchups without worrying about the effect of a loss. "You've got to have a postseason format that makes the regular season better," Petitti said. The problem with that line of thinking: If playoff access is based mostly on conference standings, then non-conference games would become glorified exhibitions. ∎ Install play-in games. If Petitti's playoff plan got approved, the Big Ten could earmark two auto bids for its top two teams, and decide its two remaining auto bids with play-in games: No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5. I never thought I'd hear someone argue that the lack of play-in games is holding back college football, but here we are. ∎ Prop up mediocre Big Ten teams. The Big Ten's eighth-place team would be in the playoff hunt entering November in the 4+4+2+2+1 plan. If that team could climb into sixth place, it would reach a play-in game. Win that, and it's playoff bound. To hear Petitti tell it, that's a plus: "We've done some modeling that you could have somewhere between 40 and 50 teams after Week 13 that are" still alive for the playoff. Sorry, but if you're college football's 50th-best team after 13 weeks, you probably shouldn't be alive for the playoff. True, allowing a selection committee to pick most of the qualifiers and seed the bracket produces uncomfortable decisions, but a dose of drama, a plateful of debate, and a dash of controversy are good for business. Petitti, though, views this through the Big Ten lens. If he achieved his playoff vision, his conference could strengthen its schedule and enhance its television inventory, while avoiding risk to its postseason prospects. If the Big Ten got trounced in non-conference matchups, no big deal. It still would be guaranteed at least four playoff bids in Petitti's model. From Petitti's perch, why not try to stack the deck and rig the playoff to favor his league? As a conference commissioner, he must view that as part of his job. Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@ and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti wants to rig College Football Playoff
