When it comes to the future of the College Football Playoff, there were as many opinions as there were coaches on hand at the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 meetings in Florida this week.
Perhaps the most eye-opening came from some of those with the most to lose — Kenny Dillingham of Arizona State and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark.
The consensus at their meetings, which wrapped up in Orlando on May 30, was a preference for a format, starting in 2026, that would include 16 teams — five of them automatic bids to the highest-rated conference champions and the other 11 awarded as at-large spots. That would be paired with a straight-seeding model that has already been adopted for next season’s playoff.
Had last season’s playoff used straight seeding, the Big 12 champion Sun Devils would have been seeded 11th, not fourth. Instead of a bye, they would have been stuck with a first-round road game at eventual national champion Ohio State.
But Dillingham said the change for the upcoming season is fine with him, and if the increasingly popular 5-11 model takes hold for 2026, that’s fine, too.
“Last season, maybe we didn’t earn the right to be the fourth seed. Maybe we earned the right to be the eighth seed,” said the coach, whose team was ranked 12th, but still received the fourth seed and a first-round bye before losing to Texas, 39-31. “I believe you earn your way to those seeds, so I’m also in support of the 5-plus-11, that same thought process.”
The SEC and Big Ten will decide the format for the playoff starting in 2026, which is when ESPN’s new $7.8 billion contract kicks in.
Yormark said the SEC and Big Ten “have a great responsibility that goes with it to do what’s right for college football and not to do anything that just benefits two conferences. And I have a lot of faith in the process.”
The 5-11 system could be less advantageous for the Big 12, which would get two automatic bids under the other system being floated, the 4-4-2-2-1 model in which the SEC and Big Ten each would receive four and the Big 12 and ACC would get two.
The best argument for that plan might have come from Florida AD Scott Stricklin at the SEC meetings: “I think anything we can do to make the postseason more objective and less subjective is going to be better,” he said, pointing to the notion that the more at-large berths there are, the more the preferences of the selection committee come into play.
Yormark said the Big 12 would be willing to take its chances with more at-large bids.
“We want to earn it on the field,” Yormark said. “The 5-11 might not be ideal for the conference, but it’s good for college football, and it’s what’s fair.”
Dillingham was on the same page.
“Every year is a new year, and you never know who’s going to be good in college football, especially with the volume going through the (transfer) portal,” he said. “So anything that creates an open platform for teams like our guys year to prove that they do belong, I’m in support of.”
