Amelia Island, Florida – Around 5 p.m. on Monday, just at the time when annual ACC spring meetings began here on the Atlantic coast of Florida, a member of the Pennsylvania congress caused a sensation.
Representative Brendan Boyle opened his social media account, hit a message and sent a sizzling dry and Big Ten to ether for their attempt to handle the future of the format of the play football playoffs.
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“The next time the big ten or the dry wants to meet me about Nile, they must be ready to explain to me first how they justify trying to fuck the CFP”, ” Boyle tweeted.
He added one more word – a hashtag – at the end of the message: greed.
There is a litany of dominant problems that have maintained themselves in the university sport industry. The unresolved antitrust regulations which would inaugurate the sharing of income from athletes; A presidential commission exploring university sports; And a battle on the governance of the NCAA, to name just a few.
But another is looming: the fight against the future of football playoffs – the most precious product in industry.
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This fight, it seems, becomes disorderly.
The negotiations between the four commissioners of the Conference of Power – they began to meet separately from the other leaders of the PCF – produced a disagreement. Discord persists on the quantity of automatic qualifications designated for each conference.
In fact, from ACC spring meetings, the conference leaders discussed the post-season format with their sports directors and their coaches, sharing with them the last negotiations between the Big 12, ACC, Big Ten and Dry. And although most here refused to reveal details, they shared their opinion on a proposal for eliminatory series at 16 teams from the dry and the big ten which would grant each of these two conferences twice as many automatic qualifications (4) than the Big 12 and the ACC (2).
“No one loves him,” explains a sports director.
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The coaches also talked against this, recommending sports administrators on Tuesday that they are pushing the AC to obtain three automatic qualifications.
“We are fighting for our places,” said head coach of NC state, Dave Doeren, in Yahoo Sports. “We think we deserve three (automatic qualifications) at least.”
The ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was not a supporter of the new CFP models presented by the Big Ten and the SEC. (Jim Dedmon-Imagn images)
(USA Today Sports via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
The long-term “4-4-4-2-1” format gives four automatic berths to each of the Big Ten and dry, two each at ACC and Big 12, one to the best classified group of six conference champions and, potentially, up to three wider offers in a field at 16 teams.
The gap between the four leagues does not exist in the number of teams. There seems to be a consensus to go from 12 to 16 from the 2026 playoffs (the 225 qualifiers take place at 12). However, the friction is with the number of automatic qualification points for each conference. Big 12 and ACC leaders want more than two automatic spots.
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“I remain firm on equity in the system and access,” said ACC Jim Phillips Commissioner on Wednesday at the end of spring meetings. “Out of respect for my colleagues, I want to keep comments on AQs and specific models.”
The commissioners of the conference of power should meet soon, he said.
Big 12 and ACC officials should offer alternative models to big ten and dry, the two conferences that hold authority in a format from 2026 – a power which was given to them by the 10 FBS conferences last spring by the signing of a memorandum of understanding to extend the CFP television agreement with ESPN until 2031.
Several alternative models have been discussed with ACC sports directors this week, including a variety of formats that allow them a third automatic qualification point, perhaps even if this point is conditional in the selection committee classification. But there are problems with those of dry and big ten. Any model “4-4-3-3-1” or a model “4-4-3-2-1” reduces the swimming pool from three to little as one. This would probably be designated for Notre Dame if the Irish ended in the Top 16. The Irish are protected as part of the memorandum signed last spring.
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Contacted by Yahoo Sports on Wednesday, Commissioner Big 12 Brett Yormmark refused to comment on any new proposal. Meanwhile, some here during the ACC spring meetings expressed their frustration in the face of any format that predetermine automatic qualifications.
“Offer places,” said Miami coach Mario Cristobal, “it makes no sense. Football has never been to give.” It is a question of winning. “
At a meeting of the four commissioners of the electricity conference in New York last week, the Big Ten and the SEC commissioners solidified their preference for the 4-4-2-2 model to 16 teams. It’s been a long time to come.
Last spring, during negotiations to extend the PCF contract with ESPN, Commissioner Big Tony Petitti initially offered a similar format-then a 3-3-2-2-1-which was refused. A year later, after two joint meetings between dry sports directors and Big Ten, the administrators of each league encouraged their leadership to increase to four automatic qualifications.
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It has become a division problem among some of the most powerful executives in sport.
The ACC and the Big 12 are not alone in their hindsight in the format. Notre Dame’s sports director, Pete Bevacqua, one of the 11 members of the CFP governance council with the 10 FBS commissioners, spoke out against the format within the meetings, according to discussions, tell Yahoo Sports.
Bevacqua refused to comment this week during the ACC spring meetings.
The coaches did not do so.
“I think you should win your way,” said Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. “It comes back to the image of the Big Ten and dry and where they are, and there is a lack of respect for the ACC. I don’t like it. “
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Ad Bubba Cunningham, said North Carolina: “I don’t understand why you would ask for a guaranteed place other than automatic for the conference champions.”
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee used a basketball analogy, quoting the 14-team sec record in the NCAA tournament last year.
“If we guarantee spots based on the past … Just look at basketball in the past five years,” said Lashlee. “About six years ago, SEC obtained three or four teams. And now this year they get a record. But if this year’s NCAA tournament was scheduled five years ago, 10 of their schools would have been left out. It is difficult to limit the future according to the past. ”
Political pressure and public reaction on the leaders of Big Ten and SEC can improve. The Boyle tweet, one of the first public criticisms of a congress legislator, is unlikely to be the last.
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In fact, Cody Campbell, the head of a newly struck presidential committee and also to be announced, is a supporter of the Big 12 and sits on the council of the former league. The billionaire businessman is the president of Texas Tech Board of Regents, is a friend of Yormmark and has a direct line to President Donald Trump.
That Campbell or the Commission is involved in discussions in the playoffs is not clear. A person close to Campbell told Yahoo Sports that he was not in favor of the format proposed by Big Ten and Dry.
Any format offered at 16 teams would start in 2026.
However, if the agreement is concluded in a format for 2026 and beyond, it can open the way to what is called a format of “right sowing” for the 2025 elimination series – a support for 12 teams which, for the moment, designates the first four heads of the best classified conference champions. Under direct sowing, the teams are directly prohibited on the selection committee classification.
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Phillips said on Wednesday that it was open to switching to right, saying it was the “good thing” to do.
But next year could make much more change to the playoffs of university football if a new format is finalized.
A support for 16 teams may require a schedule of series of eliminations in December. Under a proposed idea, two game games would be played on the second weekend in December, when Army-Navy traditionally meets and when no NFL match is planned. The winners of these game games – seeded n ° 13 welcoming the seeded n ° 16 and the n ° 14 welcoming No. 15 – would go to a support of 10 waiting teams. The first two seeds of the CFP would win a bye in the quarterfinals on New Year’s day. The double Bye would be appointed for winning conference championship matches.
Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of the proposed format is the ability of conferences to play the end-of-season tournament game clashes when the Big Ten and SEC operate their third, fourth, fifth and sixth team teams against each other.
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The teams finishing n ° 3 would welcome n ° 6 and n ° 4 would welcome n ° 5 games on campus during the weekend of the conference championship – not a new concept and a Yahoo Sports reported in December. In ACC and Big 12, if they received two car offers, they should determine if they would plan game games.
However, there is a problem in adding game games. The NCAA rule on the number of games in the regular season – 12 – must be changed.