Gluttony by the Big Ten and SEC Would Be Catastrophic for College Sports
Way back at the beginning of February, when news first broke about the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference forming a “joint advisory board” to address pressing issues in college sports, the leaders of the two leagues wanted people to know: This isn’t a power play. It was simply an aligning of leaders in the two most powerful conferences to try to steer the enterprise through the turbulent waters of our time.
There was no intent to secede from the NCAA, they said. No intent to walk away from their fellow Division I conferences—particularly the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast, the other two power leagues. Don’t go jumping to paranoid conclusions. Trust us. Really. We want what’s best for everyone.
Such innocent times those were, way back on Feb. 2.
Four weeks later, the Big Ten and SEC are acting like the robber barons they claimed not to be.
There was news Wednesday that a proposed expansion of the College Football Playoff from 12 to 14 teams was circulating that included at least three guaranteed bids for the Big Ten and SEC, with two for the ACC and Big 12 and one for a Group of 5 team. And here’s the thing: That was a step back from the initial idea broached by Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti of four automatic bids each for his league and SEC. That was obnoxious.
Then came Thursday, when more news leaked of the CFP proposals under discussion for 2026 and beyond. Sources confirm to Sports Illustrated that the latest push, for a 14-team playoff format that would give the top two teams byes and pit the other 12 in first-round games, the Big Ten and SEC want the byes guaranteed for their leagues. Yahoo Sports first reported the proposal.
This is next-level gluttony. And next-level cowardice.
The two most powerful conferences in America are scared to compete. They want to begin every season with advantages built in—the most bids, the easiest playoff path—without proving it on the field. They might well end up with those benefits, but at least earn them. Instead, the richest of the rich want the biggest tax breaks.
Predictably and understandably, most of the rest of college football is appalled. This is unchecked greed in action, a further mocking of competitive balance and a nationally cohesive sport. It’s crass and offensive and unapologetically so.
If you’re the ACC, there is every reason to be outraged. That conference produced five top-two seeds in the four-team playoff era, the second most of any league. The SEC had eight, most of any conference (nine if you count future member Oklahoma Sooners). The Big Ten had four (six if you count future members Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies). The Big 12 had one, but none going forward after the departures of Oklahoma and the Texas Longhorns.
The Clemson Tigers and Florida State Seminoles, among others in the ACC, are now supposed to simply cede a valuable first-round playoff bye because the Big Ten and SEC say so?
The latest College Football Playoff expansion model includes three automatic bids apiece and first-round byes for the SEC and Big Ten.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
The Big 12 might be more inclined to accept a deal that guarantees two playoff spots, even if it surrenders the chance for a top-two seed and first-round bye. If you subtract the SEC-bound Sooners and their No. 2 seed in 2017, the league never had anyone seeded higher than third. (Being a No. 3 worked for TCU two seasons ago, when the Horned Frogs beat the Michigan Wolverines to make the title game, but there were no byes to be had then.)
Commissioner Brett Yormark is an aggressive marketer but not a reckless gambler. He took the bird-in-the-hand approach to Big 12 media rights negotiations, accepting a deal quickly in late 2022 without pushing for too much—and in the process jumping the line ahead of the Pac-12. It proved to be a master stroke for the Big 12 and a damaging result for the Pac-12, hastening its demise. So it wouldn’t be a shock to see Yormark play ball with giving the Big Ten and SEC most favored nation status if it helped his league get two guaranteed playoff bids.
But here’s the question: When does the appeasement game end with these two gluttons? When do they stop asking for more? When do they stop bullying the rest of college athletics into acquiescence?
A suspicious person might think that these continued grabs for more schools, more money, more playoff spots and more power is to test the saturation point for the rest of college athletics. At some point, the rest of the leagues—and the NCAA—may surrender to fatigue and simply wave the Big Ten and SEC out the door, on their way to set up their own AFC/NFC fiefdom. It might be what they want but are reluctant to outright declare.
Don’t think those two aren’t discussing it. This was strangely tucked into the 19th paragraph of this ESPN.com story Wednesday night: “One high-ranking official involved in the discussions told ESPN on Wednesday that the presidents and chancellors in both the SEC and Big Ten are having conversations about whether to continue their NCAA membership. It’s a move that would impact and could possibly derail the TV agreement.”
ESPN quoted the same source saying: “Those conversations are happening,” adding some feel “pretty strongly about pulling away. I’d say very strongly.”
Such a move would assuredly tear asunder the all-comers NCAA basketball tournaments, two of the crown jewels of the U.S. sporting calendar. It would further imperil Olympic sports and the U.S. Olympic movement, with schools likely to be forced to cut sports. It would end the tradition of true national championships, with the SEC and Big Ten presumably creating their own NFC vs. AFC playoff and everyone else competing for a different title.
It would, in short, be catastrophic for anyone and everyone who likes what college sports has always been. But the power brokers in the Big Ten and SEC simply might not care about any of that. They’re not guardians of the game; they’re manipulators of the game.
Just means more? No, they just want more. And too much is never enough.
