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New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
SEC needs to do the right thing and send Big Ten and its automatic bids packing
DESTIN, Fla. — It's been fun this week to wonder, speculate and argue about the next iteration of the College Football Playoff model, sort of like it would be fun to reimagine your family room after a house fire turned everything to ash. Really, though the arguing is enjoyable, and it's what people in and around college football have been doing since the days of leather helmets and presidential commissions that had purpose (see: Teddy Roosevelt, 1905, forward pass). 'Who did you play?' and 'Your coach cheats!' and 'We have academic standards' hold this bizarre tapestry together as much as marching bands and tailgating and absurdly high coaching contract buyouts. Advertisement Which is one more reason to reject the 4-4-2-2-1 playoff model (also known as FFTTO, which stands for Football Fans, Turn To Opera) that Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is trying to ram through with support from the SEC. I'm not sure we need more reasons. It's contrary to the idea of competition, it rewards status over achievement, and it's embarrassing to say out loud. Are those enough? Here's one more anyway: We must save the College Football Playoff selection committee. We must keep our Tuesday nights in the fall. We must preserve the opportunity to speculate about what those 13 lucky souls will do. We must retain the right to get angry at them when they inevitably do the wrong thing. We must keep that cherished college football tradition — arguing — alive and robust. Could the SEC be getting led astray by the Big 10? @joerexrode worries that may be the case… — Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 27, 2025 I know some of you recoiled at first mention of the selection committee, and I realize framing a CFP format made up mostly of at-large selections as a way to maintain the power of that committee is a good way to get people to dislike that format. But everything in college sports these days is lesser-of-two-evils, so let's play out the greater of two evils known as the FFTTO. That's four automatic bids for the Big Ten and the SEC, two apiece for the ACC and Big 12 and one for the highest-ranked conference champion outside the Power 4. In a 14-team format, that leaves one bid for either Notre Dame if it's ranked in the top 14, or for an at-large selection. In a 16-team format, you would have two or three at-large selections, depending on Notre Dame. (And don't ask why we must move on from the 12-team format that worked quite well last season and will complete an era of two years after the 2025 season. Just chalk everything up in this industry to greed, arrogance and incompetence, and you're probably in the neighborhood.) Advertisement The selection committee in the FFTTO model picks a team or two at the bottom of the field and seeds them at the end. This is not enough to make Tuesday evenings interesting, and 'Laverne & Shirley' isn't walking through that door. Of much more importance, this means conference standings will dictate the field. That makes sense in the NFL, with a limited number of teams, with parity, with all games against comparable teams and with divisional foes playing each other twice a year. In college football, with 18 teams in the Big Ten, 17 in the ACC and 16 in the Big 12 and SEC — with teams in the same leagues often playing schedules that are vastly different in overall rigor — it's a joke. So is the concept of 'play-in' games during championship weekend, the Big Ten and SEC having 3 versus 6 and 4 versus 5 games for automatic bids. So is the idea that the SEC needs this format or compares with the Big Ten in terms of depth of quality programs. Yes, the Big Ten has won the last two national titles. And yes, these leagues have a tremendous rivalry when it comes to fan bases and resources. But the SEC can fill those four automatic bids with quality and go way past, and it would suffer in some years under this format. Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas A&M, Auburn … the ingredients are there for championship football, and most of those schools have it in their recent history. The Big Ten has Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State, and then other programs have had surges, but nothing suggesting the ability to win a national championship. Indiana was a great story last season, but I'm struggling to get excited for Indiana-Minnesota and Iowa-Illinois on 'Play-In-Game Weekend Brought To You By Zalinsky's Auto Parts.' Keep the five automatic bids and fill the rest of the field out with nine or 11 at-large selections, depending on whether it goes to 14 or 16. Keep playing conference championship games, with Playoff byes as the primary rewards. That's not exciting, but that's why it's not advisable to go full bloat on your leagues and Playoff field while killing the Pac-12. There are consequences. Advertisement Keep playing major nonleague games, because otherwise, the selection committee is going to be light on data to compare the conferences. And take those nonleague games seriously, because the field is mostly at-large selections and winning those games will mean a lot. In the world of automatic bids, in the world of league standings meaning everything, some coaches might view and approach those games like NFL preseason games. It would be nice to see the SEC go to nine conference games, too, but if that's going to happen only with four automatic bids? Stay at eight. Shoot, go to seven if we can avoid FFTTO. It would be better for the Power 4 leagues to play the same number of league games, but again, that does not get us to apples for apples. And then let's make sure the selection committee understands the importance of schedule strength and is armed with the best and most transparent way possible to value it. That the SEC would even consider propping up the Big Ten with the automatic bids is an overreaction to last season, when Indiana and SMU got in over Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina. As seen and heard this week at the SEC spring meetings, the whining over that has not ceased. I think the committee got it right. You might not. We should all be able to agree that it was very close and that both sides had arguments. That's how we should like it. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin told reporters this week that a committee 'is not ideal to choose a postseason,' but he didn't have a better idea. That's because there isn't one, not with this many teams of such varying quality and circumstance. The SEC can make this right. Commissioner Greg Sankey, sensitive to 'good for the game' jabs from other commissioners and questions from media, can lead the way on something that would warrant those four words. Advertisement It was good to learn this week that SEC coaches favor sticking with five automatic bids and going at-large for the rest. They should feel that way. It's better for them. They might complain a lot for millionaires and might overstate the quality of the SEC a bit — you're not playing the Kansas City Chiefs every week, guys — but they're not dumb. As for their bosses, this is a stickier issue. I've talked to athletic directors in the Big Ten and SEC about the FFTTO, and I can paraphrase the view of the AD as such: 'Yes, I'd prefer competition to earn bids, but knowing that Playoff money will be in the budget every year no matter what is a big deal.' That's understandable. These jobs are not easy. Every dollar matters. Revenue sharing is coming. Nonrevenue sports are up for review. But that doesn't mean you make your main revenue driver look like pro wrestling. As the SEC spring meetings wrap up, those of us who still think college football has a lot to offer and has not been burned to the ground have more hope than a few days ago. Sankey handed out info packets to reporters Thursday detailing the SEC's schedule strength superiority over the past decade. This is a bit obnoxious. But the data is relevant. We should keep it in mind. And Sankey and his athletic directors should leave in the Gulf of Mexico the especially flammable pile of kindling that Petitti has been trying to sell them. (Photo of Greg Sankey: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
SEC rallies around push for strength of schedule respect, setting stage for CFP format clash
DESTIN, Fla. — The SEC now appears to be the critical decision maker in the debate over the next College Football Playoff format. And on the final day of its spring meetings, while the conference didn't reveal its preference, it made clear its priority: schedule strength. Commissioner Greg Sankey began his wrap-up press conference by handing out six pages of data arguing that the challenge of the SEC's regular season deserves more consideration. The packet touted the SEC as having the hardest schedule every year from 2015 to 2024 according to five computer formulas. It also showed the SEC only had two teams ranked outside the top 50 in three different metrics, a testament to the conference's depth. Advertisement The title page read, 'A REGULAR SEASON GAUNTLET,' followed by the subtitle, 'When looking at the leading metrics that factor in strength of schedule, the conclusion across all of them is clear: No other conference has a regular season as grueling as the SEC's.' This all came against the backdrop of the SEC emerging as the swing conference in the decision over a CFP format. The field is expected to expand to 16 teams for 2026 and beyond. The Big Ten favors a format where it and the SEC get four automatic bids, the ACC and Big 12 two automatic bids each, and the conferences outside the Power 4 one bid for the top-ranked champion. The ACC, Big 12 and Group of 5 favor the so-called '5+11' model, with five automatic bids for the highest-ranked conference champions and the rest at-larges. The SEC, meanwhile, came away from four days of meetings without a formal stance nor a decision on whether to expand to a nine-game conference schedule. That decision is intertwined with the format, with some athletic directors saying they don't want to go to nine games unless they have automatic bids. But the Big Ten, if it were to relent on the automatic bids, would want the SEC to move to nine games, so that the two conferences are playing the same number. The SEC does still appear inwardly torn on what to do. But Sankey, asked whether he felt his league moved any closer to a decision on either this week, said yes. When asked how much, he appeared to send a message that got back to schedule strength. 'The strength of our conference and how that's evaluated is really something we want to be a priority. I think that's important for us,' Sankey said. 'The extent we can have clarity, maybe that can keep us advancing. Maybe if we lack clarity, maybe that causes us to take a step back in our decision making.' Advertisement What the SEC needs to see specifically to be satisfied is unclear. The CFP is currently decided by a selection committee, which looks at data but ultimately makes its own decisions in setting the final rankings. In 2024 the SEC had three 9-3 teams (Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina) that were left out of the field. And while the on-field postseason results seemed to validate the snubs (the SEC went 2-3 in the Playoff), Sankey and his conference are looking for some unclear level of assurance in order to support the 5+11 model. 'How will a 9-3 SEC team be evaluated against others who may have one or two losses?' Sankey said. 'The rigor of this schedule is unique, and it stands alone by comparison. How is that best respected in this national evaluation system?' Failing that, Sankey could back the Big Ten's proposal. And since the SEC and Big Ten have codified power to decide the format, the SEC going that way would seal it. Sankey didn't disagree with that premise when a reporter stated that it was apparent what the Big Ten wants, and apparent what the other conferences want, meaning the SEC was — 'Kind of important,' Sankey said, interrupting. 'We're a bit important in that decision.' Coming into this week, it was known that most SEC athletic directors favored the Big Ten proposal, and that was borne out in many of their interviews. Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts, for instance, said he would only vote for going to a nine-game conference schedule if the SEC was 'protected' in the next CFP format. But as the meetings went on, it was clear there were reservations. Sankey said he spoke to coaches mainly about the 5+11 model and that the coaches were open to it. And Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks, asked an open-ended question about the possible formats, argued that the 5+11 format would give the SEC a chance to get more teams in, rather than fighting for two or three at-large spots after filling out its four automatic bids. Advertisement 'If you look historically, if you look at how many we would have gotten in, I'm always going to want the decision that gets the most SEC teams in,' Brooks said. 'If you look at our track record as a conference, we should have a good number, between hopefully five and six and maybe even more, who fall in that criteria of the top 16. I think you have to look at the historical data as a guiding star for how you make that decision moving forward.' A day later, Sankey presented some of that data to the media members. He was asked whether it was meant to lobby the next selection committee or support the idea of the SEC getting automatic bids. Sankey didn't choose either option, saying it just showed the 'need for change.' 'We need better understanding of the data. Not simply that the committee has a high approval rating and works well,' Sankey said. 'There's a balance between just the machine or just the human element. Can that be achieved? That's a fair question that we should look and figure out, can we learn from our past experiences and have a balance.' The next meeting of CFP leaders is June 18 in Asheville, N.C. Sankey was asked about the chances the SEC would be able to present a preference at that meeting. 'We'll see,' he said.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Collective bargaining in college sports: Is it a third rail or an inevitability?
DESTIN, Fla. — Danny White knew what he was doing. A few days before SEC spring meetings, the Tennessee athletic director filmed a video interview with his boss, school president Donde Plowman, who also knew what she was doing when she asked White how he dealt with all the issues in college sports. Advertisement About a minute into an otherwise unremarkable answer, White dropped what qualifies among school administrators as a bombshell. 'I'll say it, we've got a camera on us (but) I don't really care at this point: Collective bargaining is the only solution.' Plowman nodded in agreement. 'It's the only way we're gonna get there,' Plowman said. The two Tennessee administrators had just stepped on the third rail of college sports. That was noteworthy, as was what happened when White arrived this week at SEC meetings: nothing. It would have been the perfect time for White to expound on his thoughts with media members, but after initially saying he would, he changed his mind. Perhaps someone made a call. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, one of the many within college sports resistant to the idea of a collective bargaining arrangement with athletes, said it wasn't him. 'I've opined about bargaining,' Sankey said Wednesday. As for what he thought about White's comments: 'I'm not going to jump into some public disagreement.' Sankey and others are hoping for approval of the House v. NCAA settlement any minute, which they hope will be followed by federal legislation, bringing a measure of stability that avoids any future need for collective bargaining. White and others think that approach is just delaying the inevitable. Collective bargaining is the reason pro sports leagues don't have incessant court challenges to their rules the way college sports does. Pro leagues negotiate the rules on salary caps, player movement and more with players unions. Many see that as the only surefire way college sports can enforce certain rules, especially when it comes to the transfer restrictions that courts have struck down in recent years, opening up an era of unlimited player movement. White and others believe a collectively bargained agreement with a players union would mean reasonable transfer rules that would stand up in court. Advertisement Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin has been on that side for several years, and he reiterated his stance this week. 'I think there's probably got to be something like that eventually, because for a while now it's been very player-friendly, with the regulations and rules around it,' Kiffin said. 'Now it's going to come back somewhere in the middle. But there probably needs to be (collective bargaining) because you're still going to have a lot of loophole issues and problems, for both sides, until there's real contracts that have years on them.' There are various hurdles to collective bargaining at the college level: the turnover among athletes, fierce resistance among administrators to athletes becoming employees, state laws against public employee unions. 'We have a reality in our states around bargaining,' Sankey said. But there are several models that could get around the issues. The Screen Actors Guild's members are contractors rather than employees because filming takes places all over the country, but the guild still negotiates work rules. Starbucks workers and Uber drivers in New York also have setups that could serve as models. As for those state laws and general hostility to unions, it bears noting that when California passed its precedent-setting name-image-and-likeness law in 2018, many other state legislatures, especially in the South, reacted with scorn. But they changed their mind when they realized schools on the West Coast might have an advantage as a result. Of course, another question is who would serve as head of such a players union, or whatever entity it ends up being. Several people have tried to step forward into those roles, but with the idea seeming far off, the urgency has been lacking. The feeling among many in college sports is that collective bargaining is a last resort, and they'd prefer to let the House settlement take effect and see if federal legislation can help. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, asked about White's comment, cited Supreme Court judge Brett Kavanaugh's 2021 opinion in the Alston v. NCAA case, which concerned the NCAA's ability to restrict the education-related benefits schools provided athletes. Advertisement 'He said there's really only three ways what college athletics is doing would not be antitrust: One is congressional action, two is through the courts, or three (is) through collective bargaining. I think that still holds true,' Stricklin said. 'Danny obviously believes the other two are not a viable path. The fact of the matter is, if the settlement gets approved, it is an attempt to do it through the courts, which kind of goes along with what Kavanaugh suggested. So I think it has to be one of those three paths.' Notably, that's not saying no to collective bargaining. Stricklin spoke more strongly against athletes becoming employees, although the Johnson v. NCAA case, which could go to trial next year, could still force that into reality. 'I don't think that's what anybody wants right now,' Stricklin said. 'We're doing a lot of things right now, though, that we never thought we'd end up doing. So never say never.' Danny White wouldn't talk this week, but his brother was also in Destin: Mike White, the men's basketball coach at Georgia. That sport deals with the transfer portal in such a way that the coach half-joked that when a player returns for a second year at the same program, 'he's an outlier.' Is collective bargaining the answer? If Mike White agrees with his brother, he wasn't saying. He also was careful not to get whatever phone call his brother got, saying he would let the administrators handle it. Then he summed up the sentiment of seemingly all college coaches. 'Give us the rules and we'll follow them,' White said. 'We'll abide by whatever the framework is and do the best we can, year in and year out.'
New York Times
3 days ago
- General
- New York Times
SEC examining tweaks to field- and court-storming rules to get ‘best of both worlds'
DESTIN, Fla. — The SEC appears to be moving on from trying to completely stop field and court storming. The effort now may be focused on managing it, though the fines would remain. Commissioner Greg Sankey said during conference meetings Wednesday that the conference is 'working on continued policy adjustments' after a successful tweak to protocols during basketball season offered hope for less chaotic postgame proceedings. Advertisement Two years ago, worried about the safety hazard of crowds celebrating big wins by rushing fields and courts, the SEC ratcheted up the fines, starting the penalty at $100,000, then increasing to $250,000 for a second offense and $500,000 for the next one. The conference also added a twist: The fine would be paid not to the SEC but to the opposing school, which had been on the losing end of the game and victim of the field/court storm. The result: Storming continued unabated. Multiple schools incurred enough offenses to owe an opponent $500,000. But along the way, the SEC hopes it stumbled on something. This past basketball season, schools not wishing to pay bigger fines devised a system. When a big win seemed near, an announcement was made that fans would be allowed to storm the court 90 seconds after the buzzer, giving the opponent and officials time to get to the locker room. Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, set to owe $500,000 the next time they were fined, were the schools that suggested it, and the conference signed off. 'In a way the pressure to get it right worked well,' Sankey said during SEC spring meetings this week. When Georgia basketball was on the verge of upsetting Florida in February, football coach Kirby Smart, who was sitting courtside, worked with athletic director Josh Brooks to tell fans to wait until the Gators had left the court. Then-Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams also took to the microphone to explain the need to wait as the Aggies finished off a big win. 'If we can have that kind of education to let celebrations take place and get teams on the field, I think that would be a really healthy direction,' Sankey said. So something like the 90-second rule may be applied to football. The question is whether the concept will work in a more spread-out environment. Sankey was clear that the league will make an effort, especially to get the visiting team, cheerleaders and officiating crew off the field. 'Some of the things that happen in football, you've got officials on the opposite end of the field trying to swim, climb their way through,' Sankey said. 'I've watched video all the way through to count the eight (officials) get off and you just lose sight of people. We have to be continually attentive on those matters.' Advertisement Arkansas incurred a $250,000 fine after it beat Tennessee last October, and as the crowd swarmed around him, Razorbacks football coach Sam Pittman told ESPN he didn't care about the fine. Reminded of that moment Wednesday, Pittman sounded a little regretful. 'I was happy after the game, and so I said on the TV I didn't really care. At the time I probably didn't,' Pittman said, with a chuckle. 'But now that you think about it, the safety part of it is probably going to have to override all of it.' Several memorable wins last football season led to field storms around the league. Ole Miss was fined twice after its win over Georgia because fans rushed the field when they thought the game was over. (That money went to Georgia.) South Carolina forked over $250,000 to Texas A&M. Oklahoma owed Alabama a $100,000 payment after its November win. Vanderbilt also took a $100,000 hit after its win over Alabama, then another two fines in basketball. Brooks was on the SEC committee that devised the fines. He pointed out Georgia has yet to be a violator but also seemed to accept that stopping the storms wasn't realistic. 'I'm not going to pretend we've got it all figured out. But hopefully we're going to keep working with our students to where they know that becomes the new standard,' Brooks said. 'Hey, look at the clock and then they get to go on the court. Because ultimately they just want to have that viral moment, go on the court and celebrate or whatever.' Pittman doesn't think schools are just disregarding the fans and accepting the crowd storms. 'I don't think so because the money's getting so high,' he said. 'So I'm all for the safety. If we could just have a time period where the opponents could get out of there, the coaches, opponents' players, and all that, and then come down there, to me you could have the best of both worlds at that point.'
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Should the SEC and Big Ten compete more frequently? LSU coach Brian Kelly thinks so
DESTIN, Fla. — LSU coach Brian Kelly is ready to welcome the Big Ten to Death Valley. The SEC and Big Ten have discussed some forms of a scheduling agreement that would increase the frequency with which teams from those two super conferences meet in the regular season. However, nothing is imminent between the two leagues. First, a new College Football Playoff format must be put in place, and then the SEC has to get its own house in order and figure out how many league games it wants to play. Advertisement But more SEC versus Big Ten is definitely on the list of long-term goals. Kelly said Wednesday that it came up during this week's SEC meetings and the coaches seem receptive. Maybe none more than Kelly. 'Our first goal would be wanting to play Big Ten teams as coaches. And I can speak for the room. We want to play Big Ten schools. We've got to get a partner. You got to get a partner who says we're in for that, too,' he said after SEC coaches wrapped up their portion of this week's conference meetings. LSU played new Big Ten members USC in Las Vegas and UCLA in Baton Rouge, La., last year. Both were scheduled when the Los Angeles schools were in the Pac-12. The UCLA game marked the first time a Big Ten school visited Death Valley since Ohio State in 1987. Kelly is also a proponent of playing nine SEC games. 'We think one (Big Ten game) would do it for us to add to our schedule,' Kelly said. 'We want to compete against the Big Ten. Look, the Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC. They've won the last two national championships. OK, that's the reality of it. We want to get challenged in that regard, and we'd like to be able to get that done. That is up to our commissioner and the ADs to see if that can happen or not. But that's the wish of the room.' Not everybody has the same wish as Kelly, though. South Carolina coach Shane Beamer already has an annual nonconference game against one of the country's best programs in in-state rival Clemson. 'I'd be all for it. But again, what does the other teams in our league, what does their nonconference look like, as well? I'm worried about South Carolina, but Texas, you play a Big Ten team. Great. That's nine SEC games, a Big Ten team, and then you have two (more),' he said. 'If you wanted to go schedule two FCS teams, you could. Ours is different, because we're saying nine plus Clemson plus a Big Ten alliance. … I don't know if that makes a lot of sense, but just looking at it from our standpoint.' Advertisement Beamer has no desire to mess with the Palmetto Bowl. 'I think it's ironclad,' he said. 'Now, there's people above me to make those decisions, but I would never want that game to go away. Rivalries and rivalry weekend is what makes this sport great. I know what it means. We're in a state in South Carolina, there's no pro sports. That game is a big deal.' Arkansas coach Sam Pittman also said he was up for playing a Big Ten team every year, but with a little different spin: Keep the current eight-game conference schedule and add a Big Ten game on top of that. 'It's just like if we go to nine games in the SEC. OK, that's fine, we also just added eight more losses on our record,' Pittman said. 'You wouldn't get that necessarily, where you just automatically have eight other losses, if you went the other way and just played the Big Ten.' Kelly said the No. 1 priority for SEC coaches is positioning the conference to maximize the number of teams it can put in the CFP. He hopes the selection process can evolve past the point where the most important thing is the number of losses a team has. 'I think we have to look at our schedule and have faith in the process that we are going to get to a better place as we continue to work through the selection process,' he said.
