Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti doesn’t think the 16-team College Football Playoff model has a chance to get off the ground.
There has been chatter this offseason that the CFP could expand from 12 teams to a 16-team or 24-team model in the near future. That discussion has been growing in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, Petitti argued that the 16-team model couldn’t work for economic reasons because the loss of conference championship games would be too much to outweigh the gains of maybe getting a couple of more teams in the tournament.
“I don’t think it gives enough access,” Petitti said, via Pete Thamel of ESPN.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey prefers the 16-team CFP model. Petitti said the 16-team CFP wasn’t on the table.
“We’ve had zero conversation about 16,” he said, before suggesting he’d aim to keep the 12-team format over the 16-team model. “It’s the first year of the new deal. It’s still just getting started. We’d stay with (12).”
The main fear with the 24-team format is that it would take a way the importance of some rivalry games at the end of the season. Some teams locked into the tournament might rest players in the final week to stay healthy for the CFP.
The 12-team format has already killed some rivalry games, like Notre Dame and USC taking a break from what had been an annual series.
Last week, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips advocated for the 24-team CFP, arguing that more teams needed to be added to the conference and its partners had teams left out of the tournament that deserved an opportunity to compete for the championship.
“When you’re leaving national-championship-contending teams out of the playoff, you don’t have the right number,” Phillips said. “We suffered through it with Florida State when the field was four, and I know other schools have suffered for it, and I’ve said this very directly. Notre Dame was a CFP-worthy team this year.
“If you’re going to ask presidents and chancellors and boards to continue to invest in their football programs, it’s really important that they have hope, that they have an opportunity at the beginning of the season to get into the playoffs.”
The SEC and Big Ten are the top two most powerful conferences in college football. In order to expand the CFP, Sankey and Petitti will have to be on the same page.
Until then, the 12-team CFP, imperfect as it is, will remain.
For more on the NCAA, head to Newsweek Sports.
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