CHARLOTTE — The 12-team College Football Playoff was such a success in year one that the sports’ leaders decided that they needed to change it almost immediately.
If 12 was good, surely more is better.
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They’ve already tweaked the seeding for the 12-team 2025 playoff to make it a straight ranking rather than give only conference champions a bye, a decision that needed unanimity among the commissioners of the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision leagues and the athletic director at Notre Dame.
Moving forward, no unanimous vote is required to make changes. The commissioners of the powerful SEC and Big Ten have the power, though they must work with their brethren.
And as the group contemplates the format — likely to be larger, either 14 or 16 teams — for 2026 and beyond, well, they’re stuck. The deadline for a decision on the 2026 format is Dec. 1.
“We may not always agree, and at certain points we have had some strong disagreements, but we all recognize the importance of coming together to find a solution that is truly best for all of college football,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said Tuesday. “Fairness and access are paramount, just as they are in all other college sports postseasons.”
Fairness, however, is defined differently by all parties, especially with billions of dollars riding on the outcome. Ohio State defeated Notre Dame for the title last season.
The Big Ten is adamant that its league receive multiple automatic qualifiers, allowing it to stage several lucrative play-in games on conference championship weekend and protect itself from SEC bias in choosing at-large teams especially since it plays nine league games to the SEC’s (and ACC’s) eight.
The SEC appeared on board with the Big Ten’s plan for four automatic qualifiers for each of those conferences — until it wasn’t. Its coaches now prefer more at-large selections, such as the current five conference champions plus seven at-large format (5+7). The Big Ten is opposed.
The SEC also wants the selection committee’s criteria changed to better reflect, it says, the difficult schedules that its teams play rather than simply the number in the loss column.
The ACC and Big 12 never liked the so-called 4-4-2-2-1-1 or 4-4-2-2-1-3 plans, as in four automatic qualifiers for the SEC and Big Ten, two for the ACC and Big 12, one for the best team from all the other conferences and either one or three at-larges. It would be accepting a status as inferior. The ACC received two berths last season.
Phillips said he is open to a 5+9 at larges or 5+11 at-larges format.
“Conference championships matter, and that’s been consistent in my five years [as ACC commissioner], that they should matter,” he said.
Phillips said he is sympathetic to calls for revamping the selection process or criteria. Phillips believes part of his job is to do what’s best for the entire sport and college athletics enterprise, as he often calls it.
“Protect the ACC, but also try to do what’s right for college sports,” Phillips said.
What is right? Well, it depends on who you ask.
SMU coach Rhett Lashlee, whose team was selected for an at-large spot after losing in the ACC championship game last season, wants to do away with the selection committee altogether and have teams earn it on the field.
He called for 16 teams in a 4-4-4-3-1 format. That is four for the SEC, four for the Big Ten, four for the ACC and Notre Dame, three for the Big 12 and one for the best team from all the other conferences. That would allow for play-in games in the SEC, Big Ten and ACC (1 vs. 2 for the championship, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 for bids to the playoff).
“It would be the best Saturday that college football could ever manufacture,” Lashlee said. “We need to reimagine and think outside the box a little bit instead of going down the same path we've gone down before. We've got a great opportunity to do that, so I hope leadership will do that.”
Cal coach Justin Wilcox said a bigger field is better, but acknowledged that there are always going to be complaints – no matter the system, field size or selection method.
“Unless everybody plays each other and you get more crossover games and non-conference [games], then there’s just going to be this constant debate. It’s going to be LeBron vs. Jordan, you’re just going to keep arguing,” he said.
He added: “Every conference is going to fight for their best interests, which is fair.”
Miami’s Mario Cristobal, whose team was in contention for a spot until the final week of the season, said he is opposed to automatic qualifiers, citing the cyclical nature of college sports. Just because a conference is good (or bad) currently, doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way.
“Would you wake up and you’re an automatic good husband today?” Cristobal said. “Your wife praises you and makes you breakfast. No, you’ve got to work at it.”
He said the 5+11 makes the most sense to him.
“You don’t want to make football a pageant,” he said.
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