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Billions of dollars are in the air as the College Football Playoff enters its last two years under contract with ESPN, and while it’s not clear exactly where they’ll fall, it’s obvious which direction the wind is blowing them: the wrong one, if you’re not in the SEC or Big Ten.
The Power Two, as the pair should now be known, took an inch earlier this week when the CFP Board of Managers voted to increase at-large bids from six to seven in a 12-team playoff format that will almost certainly be in place for only two seasons.
But it’s about to take a mile.
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Within a month, CFP governance is expected to settle on a new, long-term format for 2026 and beyond that needs to be in place before it can shake the ESPN money tree on a new TV deal. And according to Yahoo! Sports, the Power Two is on the brink of getting multiple automatic qualifiers — not just its conference champions, and as many as four each for the Big Ten and SEC — in a playoff field that could go to 14 teams instead of 12 beginning in 2026.
Remember when Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, who is the SEC’s representation on the CFP board, unsuccessfully proposed a 12-team playoff format with no automatic qualifiers and 12 at-large bids? That was less than two years ago — the stone age, for all the recent change the sport has gone through since — and lacked support because other conferences wanted a guaranteed playoff spot for their champions. In hindsight, that would’ve been a smart move for every league outside the Power Two. Because the way this is headed, they’ll be guaranteed very little.
It’s truly remarkable how quickly the Power Two’s leverage has…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/power-five-looming-cfp-format-100426338.html
Author : The Tuscaloosa News
Publish date : 2024-02-23 10:04:26
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