Late last week and over the weekend a conversation continued about the future of the College Football Playoff and potential changes to the format.
On Thursday Yahoo Sports reporter Ross Dellenger reported that there’s growing support for expansion to the College Football Playoff. The support comes from the Big Ten and the SEC after the first year of the 12-team system featured four Big Ten teams, but only three from the SEC.
The idea behind the expansion is that it would allow for four automatic qualifiers from each of the Big Ten or the SEC. In theory the extra teams means extra games which means extra millions for the conferences should they renegotiate rights with ESPN and more content for their television partner.
The move would also likely get the SEC to a nine-game conference schedule which has otherwise been met with resistance for fear the extra conference games would make the teams less appealing overall as at-large bids.
There’s a meeting among the two primary conferences on Wednesday and it could go a long way in helping determine the format moving forward in 2026 — which could be a 14-team or even a 16-team tournament.
Perhaps the most fascinating of all of it was the idea conference championship weekend could be a mini-play in tournament for conferences.
Here’s what Dellenger wrote:
“Could the SEC and Big Ten, if guaranteed four spots, pit their third-best team against the sixth and their fourth-best team against their fifth in on-campus, play-in games to the CFP? Would they advance their top two seeds automatically into the CFP or would they still play a title game?”
All of this is fascinating. It also makes one wonder if college football is forever destined for perpetual change. The 12-team playoff existed for a single season. Because Alabama lost to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt it needs to be blown up and changed immediately?
The Big Ten and the SEC are flexing its power and the other conferences have little say in most of this it seems.
As someone who thought the 12-team playoff felt mostly right and and as someone who wants the sport to catch its breath before instituting even more changes, it seems like the 12-team made it two whole years before a new system that will likely prompt even more change.
— Congrats to the Nebraska softball team for landing a No. 2 seed in the Baton Rogue regional. The Huskers will get UConn to start and then likely has to find a way past LSU to get to a super regional for the first time since 2014.
Jordy Bahl and the Huskers will be in action Friday at 2 as the Huskers look to continue a strong season. Nebraska lost to UCLA in the Big Ten semifinals this past week. On the season the Huskers are 39-13.
— Nebraska baseball managed to take two of three from another Big Ten opponent and the Huskers now have three final games against Purdue to clinch a Big Ten tournament spot. The Boilermakers have an outside shot themselves of qualifying, so the series should feature a couple teams with a lot to play for here.
Nebraska could theoretically get as high as fifth seed in the conference with a sweep, but more than likely the Huskers will be in a muddled-middle with a big chunk of the teams. Still it’s good to see Nebraska pick itself up after a disappointing midweek game against Creighton.
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