It’s adorable how they put up the facade of a fight, the allusion of strength in the face of sheer power.
The Big 12, ACC and Group of Five conferences put on the appearance they would stand firm against the Big Ten and SEC bullies, demanding fairness and accountability.
Until they couldn’t — until their false bravado of public statements wilted in the face of reality.
So it should come as no surprise that the College Football Playoff announced Thursday that this season’s 12-team bracket would be a straight-seeded format.
No more highest-ranked conference champions earning first-round byes, a format that benefits the ACC, Big 12 and Group of Five. No more Mr. Nice Guy from the Big Ten and SEC.
“After evaluating the first year of the 12-team Playoff, the CFP Management Committee felt it was in the best interest of the game to make this adjustment,” said Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP.
Translation: the SEC and Big Ten said take it or leave it, and the rest of the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences fell in line.
More damning: this is just the beginning of the Big Ten and SEC power play — and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
If you don’t believe it, consider this: any change to the final year of first CFP contract needed a unanimous vote.
The next CFP contract beginning with the 2026 season, which will effectively be controlled exclusively by the Big Ten and SEC, doesn’t.
So if the minority didn’t agree with the majority on the straight seeding for 2025 (which they could have), they may as well have signed their own pink slips for the next CFP contract.
The Big Ten and SEC control everything – format and financials – beginning in 2026. A new 16-team format will likely exceed $1.2 billion in revenue annually, and no one wants to be left out.
So while Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips have accomplished some heavy lifting to save their respective conferences, while the Group of Five conferences have done all they can to hang on for revenue scraps, the Big Ten and SEC have doubled down and flexed.
It’s their postseason world, the rest of college football is just surviving in it. And the Big Ten and SEC haven’t even begun to take big swings yet.
Soon enough – more than likely shortly after the SEC spring meetings next week in Destin, Florida – the College Football Playoff will announce the format for 2026 and beyond.
It wasn’t long ago that the Big 12 and ACC were publicly questioning a move to 16 teams, and against the idea that the Big Ten and SEC would be gifted four automatic qualifiers each — or half of the field.
It wasn’t long ago that Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey floated the idea that maybe, with the new contract, they wouldn’t use a committee to pick the field — or they would, but it would be tweaked. Shoot, maybe they’d bring back computer polls.
Understand this: the Big Ten and SEC aren’t floating ideas publicly (or leaking them) to gain an understanding of how far things can be pushed. They’re telling you what they’re doing.
And then they’re going to do it.
When the SEC meets next week in Destin, the league could finally and officially approve a nine-game conference schedule. This will put the Big Ten (which already plays a nine-game conference schedule) and SEC on an even playing field, and eliminate the final point of structural friction between the conferences.
It will also send a shot across the bow to everyone else in college football. The two super conferences are now in lockstep in format and focus, and they’re going after big financial paydays.
If you don’t like how we structure the postseason beginning in 2026, we’ll take our ball and have our own playoff. Better yet, we’ll schedule each other in non-conference games, and effectively shut out the rest of the sport.
There’s a reason the Big Ten and SEC have been talking about an expanded non-conference schedule for nearly a year. Network television (and eventually streaming) wants more Big Ten vs. SEC.
So don’t be shocked when the new 2026 CFP format includes an expanded championship week prior to the beginning of the playoff. That week – which long has been a standalone week for conference championship games – would include a championship game and three play-in games from the Big Ten and SEC.
The teams playing in the two championship games, and the winners of the play-in games, would advance to the CFP. That’s four automatic qualifiers each from the Big Ten and SEC.
More problematic for the ACC and Big 12 (and Group of Five): the Big Ten and SEC play-in games will suck the oxygen (not to mention, television money) from that final regular-season weekend.
More games, more television inventory, more revenue for the elite 34 schools of college football.
The ACC and Big 12 would get two automatic qualifiers each beginning in 2026, Notre Dame would be guaranteed a spot if it’s ranked in the top 16, and the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion would also earn a spot.
That leaves three at-large spots in a 16-team field. Three spots for the Big Ten and SEC to more than likely share, or earn a majority — based, more than anything, on strength of schedule.
It’s all there, plain to see. The Big Ten and SEC are telling us how they’re going to take over college football, and it’s time we start listening.
This is just the beginning, everyone. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
