Report: Big Ten’s Proposal for 4 Auto Bids in 14-Team CFP Playoff Called ‘Egregious’

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVFebruary 29, 2024

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Shortly after it was clear there may be a 14-team College Football Playoff starting in the 2026 season, there were reports and speculation about the Big Ten and SEC pushing for four guaranteed auto-bids into the field.

Yet that idea apparently wasn’t too popular among other leagues.

“There was pushback on four,” one college administrator told Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated. “That was egregious. Four ain’t happening.”

The College Football Playoff announced on Feb. 20 that it determined a format for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, which will feature a 12-team field. The five highest-ranked conference champions will receive auto bids with the four highest receiving first-round byes, while the other seven spots will be at-large selections.

It is a change from the initial plan to have the six highest-ranked conference champions receive auto bids because the Pac-12 is all but gone after everyone but Oregon State and Washington State departed for other leagues.

That means there is uncertainty regarding the 2026 season and beyond, and Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported a 14-team format is “being socialized among major conference administrators” that will have three auto-bids each for the Big Ten and SEC.

The Big 12 and ACC would each receive two auto-bids, while the Group of Five would receive one auto-bid. That would leave just three at-large spots remaining to fill out the field.

“The 3-3-2-2-1 format is seen as a compromise to the Big Ten and SEC’s initial proposal of four automatic berths for those leagues—a model that, in a 14-team playoff, would leave just one at-large spot,” Dellenger wrote.

It’s not surprising to see the Big Ten and SEC pushing for more auto-bids for their leagues.

After all, there is a defined gap between those two conferences and the others after this offseason of change. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC and Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten, a large percentage of the sport’s powerhouse programs reside in the SEC and Big Ten.

Ironically, an argument can be made that the SEC and Big Ten might cost themselves spots by pushing for more auto-bids.

As Stewart Mandel of The Athletic illustrated, those conferences surely won’t have to worry about getting enough teams in the top 14, while others, like the ACC and Big 12, might sneak an extra team in with two auto-bids that wouldn’t have otherwise qualified:

Stewart Mandel @slmandelThe B1G and SEC are getting three teams into a 14-team Playoff with or without AQ berths.

Meanwhile, the ACC didn’t have 2 teams in the top 14 in 2021 or ’23.

You’re going to turn off the public by legislating special treatment for 2 leagues that don’t even benefit from it.

For now, the sport is already undergoing a significant change with a jump from a four-team field to a 12-team one.

But there appears to be another expansion on the way in two years, and other conferences weren’t keen about the Big Ten and SEC taking up too many of the spots with auto-bids.