{"id":88217,"date":"2025-07-24T08:53:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88217\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T08:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:53:14","slug":"big-tens-four-bid-cfp-push-tied-to-tv-revenue-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88217\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten\u2019s Four-Bid CFP Push Tied to TV Revenue Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti\u2019s entrenched position regarding a controversial future College Football Playoff format<\/a> has sparked a question: Why is he so committed to a largely unpopular position?<\/p>\n

One answer, according to four sources familiar with CFP discussions, is that Petitti has made assurances of a play-in payday for Big Ten broadcast partners and campus administrators. That major alteration to the way college football is played would require a format that delivers four automatic bids from three games: the top two teams facing off for the Big Ten championship, with both guaranteed a CFP spot; a matchup of the third-place and sixth-place programs with the winner advancing to the playoff; and a game between the fourth-place and fifth-place teams for a CFP bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those games would provide potentially lucrative postseason inventory to three broadcast partners that are not part of the actual playoff. ESPN has the primary rights to air the playoff but has sub-licensed multiple CFP games per year to TNT through the 2028 season.<\/p>\n

If Petitti gets his play-in format, sources say a likely broadcast plan would call for Fox to air the Big Ten championship game with one of the play-in games on NBC and the other on CBS, the Big Ten\u2019s other primary broadcast partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the Southeastern Conference pivoting away from support for a so-called \u201c4-4-2-2-1\u201d format\u2014four bids each for the Big Ten and SEC, two apiece for the Big 12 and ACC and one for a Group of 6 conference champion\u2014the Big Ten now appears to be on an island. Neither Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark nor ACC boss Jim Phillips are aligned with Petitti, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gotten way out over his skis,\u201d a source said of Petitti. \u201cHe\u2019s lost the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether the Big Ten has made an assurance of a play-in round to broadcast partners or campus leaders, league spokeswoman Diane Dietz said, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petitti lost the support of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for the four automatic bid premise in the spring, when Sankey\u2019s football coaches told him they preferred a 16-team format with one automatic bid for five conferences and 11 at-large selections. The Big Ten has indicated it would only support such a format if the SEC increases its number of conference games from eight to nine. The Big Ten currently plays nine league contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach league will decide what they think the best conference schedule is for them,\u201d Petitti said in his opening remarks at Big Ten media days Tuesday. \u201cI think in a system where you have allocated spots, talking with our athletic directors and coaches, I don\u2019t think they care how many conference games a league is playing. But when you have a system that\u2019s increasing the at-large bids and increasing the work of a selection committee, that\u2019s when you need to understand how we\u2019re competing in the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s really simple math: With 18 schools and nine conference games, we\u2019re losing nine more games to start. That\u2019s really relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/p>\n

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti doubled down on his 4-4-2-2-1 proposal during the league\u2019s media days earlier this week. \/ Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The SEC has long wrestled with the idea of whether or not to add a ninth game. The league has been split almost evenly in the past, with schools that generally finish in the bottom half of the standings wanting to stay at eight. At present, there does not appear to be enough support for moving to nine games.<\/p>\n

With Petitti unlikely to unilaterally cede ground on the playoff without the SEC adding a ninth game, an impasse on future format plans is a real possibility. If gridlock continues through Dec. 1, a date Sankey said was the deadline for 2026, the current 12-team model could remain in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire country knows 4-4-2-2-1 is a rigged system,\u201d one source said. \u201c[Petitti] overpromised his league and can\u2019t walk it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Big Ten coaches continued to voice public support for Petitti, with several also championing his automatic bid proposal. Washington coach Jedd Fisch called the Big Ten the \u201cbest conference in football\u201d and cast a wary eye at a five-plus-11 playoff format.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last two seasons, our conference showed its strength and dominance with back-to-back national champions,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you prepare any better for the NFL than playing in our conference. Every week you have to travel, just like the NFL. It is not a regional league.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a national league. I would tell you, as we go, that\u2019s why it\u2019s so imperative we need four automatic bids, a nine-game schedule in the Big Ten Conference. We can\u2019t leave it up to chance with a 5\u201311 combo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti took it a step further Tuesday. When asked about dropping a series with Virginia to add a non-power-conference opponent\u2014after dropping a game at Louisville last year\u2014Cignetti took a direct shot at the SEC\u2019s eight-game conference schedules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy, you know,\u201d Cignetti said. \u201cSome people don\u2019t like it. I\u2019m more focused in on those nine conference games. Not only do we want to play nine conference games \u2026 we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cChampionship weekend, let\u2019s play three versus six and four versus five. You want to decide that on the field and make sure everybody\u2019s strength of schedule is what it needs to be? Let\u2019s make everybody play nine conference games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petitti made the point Tuesday that the SEC and Big Ten have been in active collaboration on numerous topics, the playoff included. The leagues\u2019 coaches and administrators have met twice within the last year, and there is an overall atmosphere of cooperation between the two, even if they do not currently agree on a playoff format.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we\u2019ve come together with the two leagues, good things have happened,\u201d Petitti said. \u201cNot just for the two conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another source reinforced the positive working relationship between Petitti and Sankey. \u201cThis isn\u2019t like the days with [former Big Ten commissioner] Kevin Warren,\u201d the source says. \u201cThere is no cold war.\u201d<\/p>\n

More College Football on Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti\u2019s entrenched position regarding a controversial future College Football Playoff format…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-88217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114907369169893540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}