ESPN: Big Ten, SEC to talk possible scheduling partnership
Big Ten and SEC athletic directors will discuss a possible partnership in football scheduling, along with their preferences for automatic bids, in the next iteration of the College Football Playoff.
The discussion is to take place at an in-person meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, next week, multiple sources from both conferences told ESPN on Monday.
The meeting is a continuation of the Big Ten-SEC joint advisory group, which was formed in February and includes the leagues' university presidents, chancellors and athletic directors. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti are scheduled to meet with the athletic directors for one day.
I mean this would begin the process of those 2 leagues essentially splitting away from everyone else and leaving us behind.
Oh, and don't worry, they are formally going to propose to do just that.
Sources in both leagues told ESPN on Monday they would prefer to have potentially four automatic bids each to the playoff when the next contract begins in 2026. CFP leaders haven't determined yet what the playoff will look like beyond this season and next. Some said they need to know that before making any decisions about future scheduling partnerships.
"I'm for anything that gives us the maximum number of postseason opportunities," one SEC source said. "I don't count bowl games as postseason opportunities."
Some have also expressed interest in limiting the role of the 13-member selection committee -- or eliminating it entirely.
"I think anything we can do to take the subjectivity of a committee off the table is really helpful," the SEC source said. "We may not be able to completely get rid of subjectivity the more we can minimize it. And so Tony Petitti's idea of multiple automatic spots for a conference has a lot of value. I'm not sure four is the right number."
No selection committee, 8 teams from the SEC and Big Ten in a 12 team playoff. Hey, that's fair and reasonable, right?
Comments
They also want 4 auto bids each to the playoffs.
Ugh, this whole article is slimy as hell.
Updating the OP with more info, thanks!
Another great P2 puff piece from the giraffe 🦒
Its crazy to think that she got her career started by shitting all over the ACC while being the beat writer for the ACC on ESPN.com.
But now that I think about it, it makes complete sense that the person who is in charge of ESPN's College Football Playoff coverage got her start by shitting all over the ACC for ESPN.
This is exactly how it was going to be anyways. You think the 12 team playoff was for the little guy? LOLZZZZZ no, it was for the SEC and the B10
LMAO- call me when Penn State plays a real OOC schedule and actual OOC road games, which this would require. LMFAO at Bama playing real home and home series before conference play. My ass
Just go ahead and do it. I already barely watch CFB anymore. If the bandwagon crowd wants to watch the NFL lite every Saturday, be my guest.
Once again...
This was always the point of NIL, Unlimited Transfers, and now Roster expansion.
It was never about fairness, player welfare, or compensation. It was 100% about making it easier for the "haves" to consolidate power. It was spoon-fed to the public by P.R. firm as a way to fairly compensate "poor college athletes." It was about greed and TV executives making more money...a pittance of which will ever reach 99% of college athletes.
So for those who really enjoy watching a rotating CFP of the same 10-12 SEC and B1G teams with a couple patsies thrown in-- this will be great. If you are a fan of VT or similar teams, you get to watch your team flail away trying to compete in a sport that is completely stacked against you.
This is why my interest in college football is all but gone. Its also why I'll probably avoid watching any ESPN programming until something changes for the better.
Just wait.... VT really hasn't had a great player that we develop and the fans love leave for more NIL yet. Wait until that happens. Imagine David Wilson leaving for FSU after his sophomore year because we couldn't afford to pay him? talk about buzz kill. VT hasn't had that happen yet.
That is 100% coming, and it'll be brutal. And if it never happens, that's not a good thing either.
Think about half the women's and men's basketball teams just did this exact thing.
I am just going to reuse a comment from last week (from the UNLV QB story):
With the current state of college football, I am somewhere between:
Clinging to hope that VT gets a life rope called SEC or B1G membership so that we can continue the delusional dream of returning to some level of relevancy;
And
The P2 are doing what they always wanted to do: drink everyone's milk shake.
JFC! We just took the shovels from them and said "So these grave holes we'll dig won't be for us, right?"
Might as well put this here.....
But remember, an undefeated ACC champion wasn't worthy last year
A 3 loss SEC team wouldn't be eliminating an ACC/B12 team - those teams have already been eliminated. Even I am quite surprised how fast the ACC/B12 have been lowered to the same tier as the American.
Yup. We are just a G7 school now. Might as well get used to it.
And apparently not a very good one. My how the turns have tabled.
My CFB fandom has all but completely vanished at this point. This year might finally be the end.
As dumb as 🦒 is most of the time, there is a possibility the SEC Champion will be a three loss team. Saw another analysts post that there could be a chance of six SEC teams finishing 6-2 in conference and by tiebreaker Texas A&M would play in the conference championship at 9-3. If they were to win, they would get in.
Likely all comes down to who wins between Tennessee and UGA this weekend. A&M plays Texas in their last game. Beamer could also throw a wrench in it by beating Mizzou.
Somebody queue the let the world burn memes.
Yup, thanks!
There is a scenario where A&M still goes to the championship games losing to Texas becuase LSU, Texas, A&M and UGA would all be 7-1 and the tie breakers are terrible and would match LSU-A&M. Turns out having too many teams in a conference makes it really hard because they don't have common opponents besides UF.
This means that two top 5 teams wouldn't play for their own championship game.
I hope this happens.
We have gone from Coastal Chaos to Southeastern Chaos.
Of course that would mean that at least three SEC teams get into the playoff but it would be funny to see two top 5 teams not be able to play in their championship game. Fans heads would explode.
The problem is that it's not possible to embarrass them. They really don't care.
Gotta introduce the SEC 8-team playoff to determine the three teams going to the CFP playoff.
everybody loved complaining about the weaker divisions, but i think they're finding out that getting rid of the divisions wasnt quite the silver bullet to the golden matchups that they thought it was.
If this happens, I'm sure the SEC will create some loophole or subjective commissioner's choice so that they wont lose out on a Texas/Bama championship game TV ratings again.
For the SEC, it's an easy fix. The two highest ranked teams in the CFB playoff rankings. Sankey controls that group already.
I don't have any problem with any conference champion being in the playoff. Where I will start to call bullshit is when they start leaving undefeated champions out or start talking up 3 loss at large teams just because of the conference they play in
Welp.
The train has left the station.
Missouri shouldn't be anywhere near the top five and would lose to the top half of the acc. But it's been a "ranked win" for the sec all year
That's part of how they do it.
There are a couple teams that are truly outstanding.
They create a field where they are all over-ranked preseason.
Do not play anyone capable of doing a darn thing OOC (think the Elderly Nuns of the Poor University - Junior Varsity) the first couple games so there's no chance of losing and the game atmosphere allows for effective tune-up.
Then play each other for in-conference. Any loss is then a quality loss. Any win a superior win over a highly ranked team.
The couple really good teams then play in the playoffs, therefore validating the very high rank over the whole gang.
Generate TV dollars and NFL players. This brings high budgets and high recruits.
If one of the good teams then looses too many times, they are all very high quality losses so that they can still insert that team into the playoff over some other conference champ that was not from a favored conference.
Rinse, repeat.
Just saw a post about Texas schedule so far and it's strength if they were in another conference.
10th in the ACC...comical
At least someone is willing to admit it.
It just doesn't matter, though, because nobody cares about actual on field results, it's all about perception, and that means if enough people think Texas is good then what they have actually done won't matter. Just like FSU going undefeated last year didn't matter because enough people didn't feel like it was good enough.
Let's be honest, it doesn't matter what most people think. Only matters what the E$PN/$EC leadership want it to be. The rest of us just get the garbage output.
Those idiots are killing their regular season and thus will kill attendance and interest. Georgia /Alabama is meaningless right now. So is Ohio State Michigan. - no meaning. no stakes. all of those team will make the playoffs. Penn State Ohio State meant nothing this year. That will catch up to them. Look at NFL ticket prices once teams are eliminated from the playoff contention. You will see starters resting in the SEC /B1G championship game very soon.
This is exactly why I didn't want the 12 team playoff.
PSU/OSU is the perfect example - I guess the argument is that (assuming Oregon wins the B10) the OSU/PSU winner will get homefield advantage in the first round, and the loser will (likely) have to go on the road? That's not not-a-big-deal, but it's not really a big deal, ya know?
The intense rivalries/regular season games is one thing that separates CFB from the UFL or other pro leagues. Point being, eventually the only distinction is that idiots don't donate millions to UFL franchises.
And it's exactly why I always thought winning your conference should be a requirement to make the playoff. Conference games matter when only one team gets to the big table. You have to have one of the two best conference records to earn a spot in your conference game and that game will mean a heck of a lot more since the winner goes to the playoff and the loser goes home.
The mistake wasn't expanding the playoff. The mistake was allowing teams that hadn't won their own conference to begin with
Eight teams would have been the perfect playoff and they couldn't be happy with that.
Five P5 Conference champions, the highest ranking G5 team, and two at large with no more than 2 per conference.
That was the best solution. Of course that was also before we had conferences wanting to go to 20 teams.
I think keeping it at 4 would have been interesting if they forced conference championship as a pre-requisite. Then you'd get the goofiness of which 4 of the 5 conferences get their champion to the table. It would be contentions and sometimes controversial and also would force the leagues to figure out a way to measure themselves against each other in a way that would convince the "deciders" which 4 are best.
In any case, if they had started from the foundation of "must win your conference to be eligible" and then expanded they would have to figure out a way to rank each of the conference champions and select the top 8 or 12 or whatever. I don't think there would ever be room for "at large" bids. The playoff only works in the structure of college football if each conference is guaranteed a maximum of one team. That keeps the regular season special and important. It's just a little extra reward for the teams that win their leagues and it's bragging rights for which ever conference puts a team in that wins it all.
The SEC wanted to have BOTH teams in the 2 team playoff several times- yes- so yeah they want to control things.
they even got it, once. I hate the SEC for many reasons but one of them is that they are actively destroying the sport. Giving the SEC what the SEC wants has ruined everything for everybody
Man, I wish it was the only way to get in. Instead, because 'it just means more', now you have SEC coaches openly admitting they don't want to play in the SEC title game so they can keep national title hopes alive.
Gotta read the fine print on that SEC tagline:
SEC - "It Just Means More"**
** SEC reserves the right to define "it", what it means, and how much, as it sees fit.
me too, brother. me too.
It's why I've been complaining about how they messed up the playoff since day 1. It's the hill I'm going to die on. The playoff wasn't a bad idea at all but they completely bungled the execution of it by failing to make conference championship victory a requirement to get into the playoff. That one thing right there would have avoided basically everything that has followed the advent of the event.
My stance: The BCS era was far superior to the playoff era and the playoff era is absolutely torpedo-ing the sport. But it didn't have to be this way. I was absolutely in favor of a playoff at the time the idea was being floated but the instant it was announced and they didn't make championship a requirement to get in I knew it was flawed and destined to fail. I've been yelling about it for years.
The sport could have been so much better but they missed one key element and now everything sucks.
BCS I think was definitely better than the current system as I think too much of the "human element" in the form of the selection committee just leads to greed and politics/bias. You can't have a playoff where there is no clear criteria to qualify whatsoever. It's just a complete beauty contest right now designed to generate big tv ratings.
You have to make conference championships the main auto-qualifier for the playoff. Throw in a couple at large teams if you wish to make it compelling, but champions need to have auto births regardless of conference and ranking. If the best team on paper trips up and loses, too bad too sad try again next year. There's too much emphasis on trying to rig the whole system to get a big tv drawing matchup instead of just letting things play out on the field. All champions being included makes the regular season and postseason equally compelling, because literally every game matters.
But the problem is, since the D1 FBS postseason is basically run by corporate tv networks and the conferences are all parties to it separately, there is an incentive for the conferences that feel like they are more important to rig the deal and try to get more spots and ultimately money. I think some collective bargaining agreements and more conferences with smaller membership numbers and round robin play would make the whole system better with automatic bids for champions. But ultimately cash is the reason we are headed for this hellscape in the sport and I don't see it being fixed any time soon. It's frankly going to take the non P2 schools who get left out of this scheme just completely walking away and not watching to make things change and the tv networks to feel it.
The problem is that their goal was never to come up with the best way to determine a champion, it was always just to get rich as fuck.
CFB had one of the better ways to determine a champion as it attempted to give it to the best team (which is really difficult with 120+ teams). The NFL determines the best team in January, but not the best team.
Overall the playoff makes the regular season pointless, and makes conference championship games stupid cause if don't make your get a bye, if you win, you get a bye, I'd you lose you play the most games.
They intentionally made conference championship victory NOT a requirement because there were too many years where a strong contender was the loser in the SEC between Bama and Georgia and Big10 with Ohio State and Michigan.
The BCS wasn't far superior. There were always questions about how good certain teams were. I, for one, would have loved to see how that undefeated UCF team would have done in a playoff setting. Then there was, is the #3 or even #4 team possibly better than the #1, especially if there were large scoring differences in the 1vs2 and 3vs4 games.
Just like FSU going undefeated last year didn't matter because enough people didn't feel like it was good enough.
It wasn't "enough people". It was the deciders.
Right, what "the people" think/want is irrelevant. All that matters is what the chosen few in power think. Kind of like literally everything else in the world. Why should college football be any different?
Exactly, I get a lot of comments about this but I love college football because it's the only sport that is about life. The lessons you learn like no matter how good you are the other guys name might just matter more. It's a fantastic microcosm of life. Other sports care about being fair and that's never been CFB thing.
With all due respect, fuck this mindset. It's bad enough that the little guys get absolutely crushed in nearly every aspect of their lives because the rich run everything and see us plebes as little more than disposable meat bags who exist to make them more money. The last fucking thing I want is for the little enjoyment I have on the weekends to be overwhelmed with that same mindset. We go down that path and not only will I permanently turn my back on everything related to college sports but I'll actively rooting for it's complete and utter downfall, not giving one ounce of a shit who goes bankrupt seeing their financial livelihoods destroyed in the process.
You ok?
For the first time this year I actually am. Laid off in March by a company I had been at for 13 years because they were prioritizing money over people despite the fact they had record profits 3 years running. Got a job offer last week for a role that is essentially a promotion. Which is great.
But that doesn't change the fact I got to see firsthand just how cold, callous, and unforgiving this country is right now when someone deems you not worthy of being a part of the game anymore. 500 applications sent and maybe 20 call backs and maybe 5 of those advanced past a phone screening. (If you are in the same boat right now all I can say is be prepared to answer any recruiter who reaches out, they're the only way you will advance to interviews. Stay positive, good things will happen).
I don't want the sport that I love to resemble that, and right now we are on a fast track to what is effectively a mass layoff of everyone who isn't in the P2. And once it goes to that point, everything that was once good about the sport dies and will never come back.
Right there with you. I hate all the worst things about life in 2024 seeping into a sport that should be a break from all that.
This is one of, if not the, thing I love most about CFB. It's a real life allegory for the rising and falling of families in America.
That doesn't mean I don't think we should try to fix the issues with the sport... But it is why I don't like the idea of a college football draft or salary cap. We don't need parity in the sport, but we do need a clear pathway for teams to move up or down a level based on performance (which is driven by investment) - which is why I (and just about everyone else) is such a believer in promotion/relegation.
Relegation doesn't work with unbalanced schedules. If a beauty contest is how you relegate or get promoted - that's garbage. The scheduling model needs to be fixed first. Indiana played a joke schedule this year for example. SMU didn't play Miami or Clemson. Beauty contests like- yeah Bama will have 3 losses but they beat UGA- sucks in terms of relegation models.
Yes it does:
Boom. Easy to explain. Tough to get buy in. Schedules don't need to be perfectly identical. The rules just need to be clear from the getgo.
"Divide the country into 4-8 geographic areas (AKA conferences)"- so yes fixed the scheduling model first.
Not any different than today. Still have 9 conference games/3 OOC
Promotion and relegation will never happen in US sports because the people in power want to ensure they remain in power and as such the first thing they do is pull up the ladder behind them and enact policies that make it incredibly tough for anyone else to have the same advantages they did.
I know what you want, but it's pie in the sky Fantasyland hopes and wishes to think it'll ever happen. The end game here is always going to be the rich consolidating power and control to hoard more money for themselves while allowing the others to think they might be able to be rich, too, when in reality the gulf between the haves and have nots is literally inconceivable for the average mind.
I completely agree. Like I said:
Dead Horse- no other business on earth operates like this college football shit show. none
And just like that Missouri is rated #23 again lmao
Yeah F ing ridiculous
It's just like last year they didn't really beat anyone but they beat the weak teams and that looks good.
Their wins just mean more because of perception
Anyone who voted to rank Mizzou should be checked into an institution immediately, for their own and everyone around them's safety
I'm totally done with anything non ACC or G5. They're not even hiding it anymore, it's a total cabal. The rankings are completely devoid of logic or consistency. I refuse to watch any Big 10 SEC only matchups (with the possible exception of Indiana vs an SEC team this year).
I cancelled all TV subscriptions last year and will not re-up (higher percentage of the money goes to the Big 10/SEC networks basically no matter where you live). I've been relying on free streams and it's been fine, will drop links for anyone who wants to do the same (not on TKP ofc).
If a large enough bloc of ACC Big 12 and G5 fans just refuse to participate, maybe, maybe it will have some effect on this complete destruction of the sport we all once loved. Either way I'm out they're not getting a cent of my money pulling this bs.
Save your money and spend it on more worthwhile things. If there's one thing Americans do really well, it's finding something beautiful and figuring out how to absolutely hump it dry by monetizing it to death.
I believe it was Churchill that said Anericabs will always do the right thing, after exhausting all other possibilities.
Churchill has been attributed many great quotes
I am here to say that I am a proud Anericab. God Bless Anericab.
in fairness, Churchill was drunk a lot and might have slurred
💯
I don't pay for shit. I only watch VT. Most of my weekend media consumption is EPL.
HOKIES aside, I'm basically completely checked out on college football. The product is ruined, imo. I don't think there's any saving it at this point. Eventually the only people watching will be sec and big10 fans and when that happens the networks won't be able to afford paying the huge sums of money those leagues will demand and the house of cards will collapse. I just don't know when that will be. Could be 50 years from now.
Ditto. The only non-VT game I watched this year was the Apple cup with a WSU alum friend and it was glorious.
FTFY.
Good new everybody, it only took three days to determine Oregon cliniched a spot in the Big Ten title game. These large conference are really showing what they are worth (Nothing)
So after tonights CFP rankings and statements after, those conferences already have full control now. There is no hope for any other conference to every why a fair shake again.
For me this was last year after an undefeated FSU was left out.
Who are we kidding?
It has been like this for a long, long time.
The FSU snub was just an exclamation point.
Someone - ahem- was mocked on here for saying prior to this season that no matter what (3 losses, 2 to garbage teams) Alabama had a spot. Hmmm. Yes folks- this is an 10 team playoff, don't fucking fool yourselves. Bama and ND are in unless they have 4-5 losses. You can go to the fucking bank on that and this year proves it. Bama should be nowhere near this playoff losing to Oklahoma and Vandy. VT would be ranked 75th with that resume.
Vandy is SEC so, quality loss.
SMU should kindly opt of of their championship game and let Miami play instead- SMU would then be EXACTLY fucking like Ohio State and Bama who don't have to play this weekend and have solidified their spots.
And then the committee will punish them for opting out and drop them to 15th.
And if they lose they will drop them to 13th because you can only have 1 ACC team.
And if they win, they'll be seeded no higher than 5th just to make sure they don't get a bye.
Because the system is rigged against the ACC and there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it now. We lost the war and it's only going to be a very slow death from here on out.
If anything, everyone who isn't the SEC or Big Ten should just split away and refuse to schedule them anymore. Just rip the bandaid off and let us move on
I agree with this post 100%. I'm over it. If ANY SEC team lost their QB and went undefeated last year, they are in- 100% period end of story. It's a self fulling prophecy... say that every team in the league is great- keep saying that- keep calling literally every game on the schedule a meat grinder and eventually it becomes true. Ole Miss and Missouri are NOT fucking great teams. LSU fucking sucks this year comparatively. When Rich Rod destroyed UGA in a bowl game, the narrative was UGA didn't want to be there. Sooo fucking laughable. Everyones head should explode when the SEC and B1G get 8 gaurenteed spots, but it won't- it will be "Playing at Auburn is a meat grinder" It's fucking ridiculous.
I saw someone on twitter call it a positive feedback loop for the SEC and Big Ten and a negative feedback loop for everyone else, and it couldn't have been more accurate.
When you get into that state, you cannot win. You are held to a different standard of which you cannot control and will always work against you to highlight your faults and downplay your strengths.
If college game day said that Wake, NC State, GT and Louisville were great every week for 10 years, you start to believe it. If Fuente would have said "well paying at Pitt is a meat grinder, so that shouldn't be held against us" and Herbstreit agreed for 15 years, the ACC would be where the SEC is. But here we are. Playing at Kyle Field is impossible- except for the 3 teams that go in there and win every year. Nobody can ever win in Death Valley at night- except Bama, UGA, Ole Miss, etc. LSU is a meat grinder- that fires their coach every 4 years. Ole Miss is amazing - except for the 60 years between Archie Manning and Jaxson Dart of course. Tennessee was such a tough place to win when Derrick Dooley was there. When Lane Kiffin went 7-5- well that doesn't count. It's horsehit. Yes Nick Saban had a generational program at Bama. I give him that. But Dabo Swinney beat him, and they were 9-5 overall in the playoffs- so not unbeatable.
Speaking of College GameDay, this weekend will be the 10th time they have been at an SEC home game.
All other conferences
Big Ten - 4
ACC - 2
If they cared about integrity, being interesting, and having something other than mouth breather McAfee yelling at the camera for 3 hours, they would go to the game with the most stakes- Texas and UGA are already in the playoff. So go to the ACC or B12 game where there are actual stakes involved. The loser goes home, etc. But they don't have integrity. They will go to ND when not airing the game and the game is meaningless. They have done that many times.
Even without integrity, going to Big 10 who they don't broadcast more than the ACC which they do is just icing on the cake. It further divides the focus on the two conferences it has the rights to.
What are they going to talk about for 3 hours? How texas and UGA are both in, and the game means nothing?
No they will spend 3 hours pumping up Alabama and maybe Ole Miss and SCar while they are at it. They already locked the Texas and UGA boxes, now they need to sell jumping Bama over Miami and SMU if the Mustangs lose.
Don't worry, they'll have industry plant Joe Tessitore spending the entire ACC Championship Game broadcast reminding everyone why SMU isn't good enough to be an at large team if they lose, effectively using the entire game to explain why Alabama is more worthy than either participant knowing the committee is watching.
it's basically why I can't stand to watch this sport anymore. I literally ONLY watch VT games - and not even all of them at that. I just don't enjoy it anymore. They're not even hiding the bias. Or trying to. It's ridiculous.
Cannot agree more with the
comment. I have never quite figured out the overhyped appeal of Pat. Apparently I must be in the minority as The Mouse pays him well.
As my wife is fond of saying, "just not my jam".
He's a prick. He does his radio/TV show in gameday style at the same fucking site on Friday's. lol. So if Saturday wasn't enough to hear him yell the schools fight song. He also has blatantly tried to upstage a struggling Lee Corso with his antics - he all BUT puts on the head gear. If Corso is still on the show, McAfee should respect it. And to pretend like yelling into the camera about sports is new/revolutionary is horseshit too- Chris Russo did that in 1981. Steven A did that long ago etc.
Fyi, GA hasn't won in death valley since 2018. Ole Miss hasn't won there since 2008.
Thank you, I was giving general examples. They don't go undefeated there every year. Someone beats them.
I am still waiting for the B10 to ban Ohio State and Michigan from post season play due to a brawl that the police had to pepper spray players to stop.
But money talks.
Amen. Will never happen- like they will never investigate James Franklin playing to betting lines either.
James Franklin playing to betting lines
Is this a thing!?
Several times over the past couple of years he has kept his foot on the gas for no reason. Other than an over/under of course. This is anecdotal and my opinion but it's on reddit as well, etc.
Such a corrupt sport. It feels great not to be paying ESPN a dime. Wish more folks in the ACC/B12/G5 fandom would cancel their TV subscriptions
The problem with this is that then the ratings for the ACC/B12/G5 drop and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I wish there was a way to show support just for the non SEC/B10 portions of the sport.
I see your point. I mean if the TV providers would let me get the ACC network and not pay the money for the Big 10 and SEC networks I would. A larger percentage goes to them in the current setup which is the issue.
If there was a way to just subscribe to the ACC network separately for cheap I would do that.
ESPN is the one causing the problems so anything that gives them less revenue is good in my book. Have fun sticking to your precious SEC just be ready to face the consequences for that