The Changing Face of College Football
By GEORGE SOMERVILLE –
THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
College football is changing, this much we know. However, the magnitude of that change remains uncertain.
With the landmark decision on the House Settlement Bill, the college game now in its 156th year has changed forever. If we thought that the pace of change evidenced through the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal was fast over the last two years, buckle up because we ain’t seen nothing yet.
The House Settlement Bill ratifies the decision allowing student athlete’s to participate in revenue sharing from the income schools receive from Sports. The US District Court decision which had been delayed twice and recently extended until the end of June was finally approved late on Friday evening by Judge Claudia Wilken.
The uncertainty caused by these delays and the resulting shifting sands has meant that schools hustled to gain first mover advantage or for most, just to keep up with their peers and not lose ground. It is a Brave New World but it’s also the Gold Rush and the Wild West thrown together.
Despite and possibly because of these seismic changes the Conferences remain misaligned throughout all of this. There is more disagreement and argument around the changes needed than agreement and conciliation. Which makes it difficult to really know where college football is going to end up.
SEC Spring meetings
Last week the SEC held it’s Spring meetings in Destin, Florida. Given the media presence at these meetings the hot topics of the moment are discussed openly. Which is in contrast to the BIG10 which does not hold press conferences during its Spring discussions.
This is good in that it means the SEC Spring meetings are as good a barometer to the temperature of college football as we can get.
So what did we find out from Destin?
A revised CFB Play Off Format
With conference realignment quiet for the time being, the power five conferences are zero’d in on the proposed changes to the College Football Playoff.
Last year was the first year of an expanded playoff, moving from the existing four teams to twelve teams. Not without its critics, the expanded playoff competition was certainly a success.
Perhaps of greatest debate was the eventual make up of the final twelve. Yes, you guessed it – the seeding of the twelve participants came under scrutiny. Of course this is not a new “problem” for college football. The criticism of the 12 men and women huddled around a table in Grapevine in Texas was the Playoff committee not valuing sufficiently school’s strength of schedule.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time and criticism was loud from the South with Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina not making the final cut.
Nobody ever thought that the revamped Play Off system was ever settled from get go. Which in this ever changing world we live in means that change is inevitable.
SEC shocks the BIG10
Up until last week it appeared that the SEC and BIG10 were aligned on what is commonly called the “4+4+2+2+1” format. This proposal is designed to ensure that the top four teams from each of the SEC and BIG10 auto qualify for the Playoff. This proposal had come after several meetings between the two conferences over the last twelve months.
However, news out of Destin shocked the BIG10 schools and its fans.
By Tuesday of last week word was that the SEC might be shifting to a 5+11 format. This proposal would default to the five conference champions auto qualifying with eleven “at large” bids. At large are decided by the CFP rankings.
To say those from BIG10 country were apoplectic with rage is something of an understatement.
Now, here’s the rub. Last week SEC Athletic Director’s and Head Coaches were very critical of last years rankings which means that 11 “at large” bids are at the mercy of the Playoff selection committee.
Which is largely why collectively and individually the SEC Commissioner, Athletic Directors and SEC Head coaches made the point about strength of schedule loud and clear so that everyone in Texas and way up North could hear.
The Commissioner led the charge. Speaking to the media in Destin and reported by The Athetic’s Seth Emerson, Sankey said,
“It’s clear that not losing becomes more important than beating the University of Georgia, which two of our teams that were left out did. Nobody had that kind of quality win. You can’t just run down a College Football Playoff selection idea without thinking, well, if we play eight or nine games, that’s the depth of analysis we’re looking at.”
9 game sec schedule still isn’t a lock
What led Sankey to make these comments?
Well you will recall last year, Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina didn’t make it into the final top twelve rankings. This omitted them from the playoff’s. Now, I hear you level headed CFB fans out there (are there any?) shouting that all three teams had three losses in the season.
Which is the whole crux of this debate. SEC Head Coaches view is that the CFP Play Off Committee valued and continues to value absolute wins over strength of schedule.
Those in the SEC remain of the opinion that the Playoff committee valued a win over a non conference opponent better than a loss to a strong conference one. Which is why SMU and Indiana rose up the rankings and the SEC teams did not.
Amongst other SEC Head coaches and Athletic Director’s, Georgia Head coach, Kirby Smart weighed in on the argument when in Florida.
Speaking to the media in Destin, Smart said,
“I have a hard time seeing Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina not being in the best teams last year and that for me, is a big part of the SEC. People want to say “Well, you need to play nine games. You need to play eight games. We don’t really know which one of those is until we know the playoff format”.
Which leads us to the current eight team schedule which the SEC continues with. Not news, but at Destin it was clear that SEC Head coaches remain concerned that adding a ninth conference game will further jeopardise SEC teams opoortunites if the Playoff committee continues to favour wins over strength of schedule.
The switch to a nine game conference schedule continues to be a hot debate. SEC Head coaches continue to pushback Commissioner Sankey who is understood to favour the 9 game schedule. Speaking on the College Chaps podcast, Yahoo SportsSenior College Football Reporter, Ross Dellenger who was in Destin spoke on the subject.
“Greg Sankey has been in favour of nine games, clearly for some time now but he just hasn’t been able to move the room that way” said Delleger on what he has been hearing from inside the conference” .
“This has been a topic of conversation for at least four years now. If they don’t do this, multiple automatic qualification thing, 4+4+2+2=1 (proposed revised playoff format) ad they don’t do it partly because the coaches didn’t want to do it because they think they an get more teams in – then if you move to a 5+11 (format) then it seems only fair that you play the same amount of conference games as other leagues”
Which leads to an interesting dilemma for the SEC. There is very little time to adjust schedules for 2026. In fact almost no time. So in the absence of a collective agreement to change the Playoff format then the SEC appears reluctant to change its conference schedule.
Is the SEC and BIG10 “alliance” at risk?
Up until this point the SEC and BIG10 have been playing the pantomime villains during all of this change. Both conferences have been heavily criticised for their self preservation and bully boy tactics leveraging their size to get what they want.
But now with the SEC seemingly changing tact on the CFP Playoff format, the “alliance” between the two conferences seems in danger of breaking apart.
No sooner had word got out of Destin that the SEC was favouring the 5+11 playoff format, BIG10 Athletic Director’s had met and voted that they would not consider any proposal on this format without the SEC committing to a nine conference game schedule.
Of course this is all posturing at this stage with nothing likely to be agreed until the music stops ie an agreement is reached on a CFB Playoff format.
However it is clear that SEC Commissioner, Greg Sankey is getting frustrated by the criticism directed at him from other Conferences. Speaking in Destin Sankey was clearly shirked by the rhetoric that the SEC should be consider the “greater good” of CFB over sec preservation.
Sankey recoiled from very public criticism from the ACC and BIGXII that the SEC wasn’t acting in the best interests of college football. On day one of the Destin meetings, Sankey met with the media to say,
“I don’t lecture others about good of the game and coordinating press releases about good of the game, okay,” Sankey said. “You can issue your press statement, but I’m actually looking for ideas to move us forward.”
We still can’t rule out a SEC & BIG10 breakaway
So is this latest disagreement between the games two biggest conferences a spat or the beginnings of a divorce? Given their individual aspirations any alliance is always likely to be one misstep from crisis.
The current spat is a good example of the pressures all the conferences find themselves under.
The House Settlement means that Schools will share revenue with student athletes. Call it self preservation but money plays a huge part in the future of the game. For revenues to increase, TV contracts have to be extended and viewership has to rise. Sadly all of this is interlinked to winning and at the top of that tree is making it to the CFP Playoff on a regular basis. Nobody wants to be left behind.
Conference commissioners Greg Sankey and Tony Pettiti are different characters. Pettiti is unlikely to be in front of the cameras while Sankey is particularly media savvy. However both are playing out their conference’s needs and issues as they feel fit. It is a ruthless, cut throat business.
so what can we make from this?
So, what to make from all of this?
Frankly there are so many moving parts that you can’t rule out much at this stage. However the jigsaw puzzle has just got a little clearer now the House Settlement Bill is approved. This solves the finance question (to an extent), next we need clarity on what the revised CFB Playoff format looks like.
But of course that is easier said than done. Time is on no-ones side at this stage. Schedules are agreed years in advance so any radical changes need to be looked at now. And frankly the ostrich approach – sticking your head in the sand and hope it goes away – isn’t going to cut it.
Out of season is a much better time for conference members to talk about all of this so now is the best time to get an agreement.
Can agreement be reached before the season kicks off in August? Maybe but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we aren’t still talking about these same topics next June.
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.
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