Yahoo’s Pat Forde was a guest on The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday and he made an interesting prediction. Despite all of the bluster about the College Football Playoff expanding to include 12 teams and what that could do for revenue for all of the conferences involved, the ACC, Big Ten and PAC-12 are willing to derail the process.
Commissioners of the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC-12 and SEC) met on Wednesday and didn’t even take a vote on whether to expand. Forde told DP that the decision was largely about pettiness and hurt feelings coming out of the SEC’s move to add Oklahoma and Texas.
“Basically it comes down to an unwillingness to let the SEC and ESPN get everything it wants here more than anything else.”
While ESPN has denied being involved in the effort to get the two marquee properties in the Big 12 to leave for the SEC, league commissioners are not buying it. A bigger SEC, particularly one that includes Oklahoma and Texas, likely means more of the 12 available spots go to the conference. The SEC and College Football Playoff’s exclusive media partner is Disney/ESPN.
“ESPN would be the sole media benefactor, and we don’t like what happened with Texas and Oklahoma, so we’re gonna throw a stick in the wheels here and at least slow it down,” Forde said, explaining the position of the other conference commissioners. “I still think we’re gonna get to expansion. I don’t know if it is going to be 8. I don’t know if it is going to be 12, but we’re gonna get to expansion with multiple broadcast partners is my belief.”
The College Football Playoff’s current television contract expires after the 2025 season. Forde pointed out that it is possible if everyone has the same goal that a change could be made in time for the 2024 season. That seems unlikely now.
Dan Patrick added that he had heard that 12 may not be a number etched in stone. The CFP could expand to 8 or even 16 teams. Forde cautioned against expecting as many as 16 pointing out that conference commissioners still want to give college football an illusion of amateurism, and likely don’t want two teams having to play a 17-game schedule like the NFL.