NEW ORLEANS — Following a joint meeting between athletic directors representing their respective conferences on Wednesday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said they agreed that the way teams are seeded in the 12-team College Football Playoff should change this fall.
While the voices of the two wealthiest and most powerful conferences certainly carry weight, any changes for the 2025 season have to be unanimously agreed upon by the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua.
“I’m prepared to vote for seeding change, but it has to be unanimous,” Sankey said.
This past season, the four highest-ranked conference champions earned the top four seeds and a first-round bye. It was one of the most controversial facets of the format because it allowed for ninth-ranked Boise State, which won the Mountain West Conference, to earn the No. 3 seed and for 12th-ranked Arizona State to earn the No. 4 seed. Third-ranked Texas and fourth-ranked Penn State were runners-up in their respective conferences, but they couldn’t be seeded higher than Nos. 5 and 6 because the top four seeds were reserved for conference champions.
A popular suggestion to change the seeding for this fall — which Petitti said he favored — has been to use the selection committee’s ranking for the seeding while still making room for the five highest-ranked conference champions. In that model, the committee’s top four teams would earn the top four seeds and first-round byes, regardless of whether they were conference champions. That would also open the door for Notre Dame, which can’t win a conference title as an independent, to earn a first-round bye as a top-four seed.
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“We’re in favor of going to a straight seeding, where there’s no difference between rankings and seeding like we had this year,” Petitti said. “We’re in support of that for next year.”
The joint meeting between the Big Ten and SEC came less than a week before both Petitti and Sankey will meet in Dallas with their fellow FBS commissioners and Bevacqua to begin a thorough review of the inaugural 12-team playoff.
The SEC and Big Ten have the bulk of control over what the CFP will look like when the new contract with ESPN begins following the 2025 season. That power was part of the negotiation process that also included guaranteed access for conference champions and certain protections for Notre Dame.
When asked directly what their respective conferences would like the playoff to look like in 2026 and beyond, Sankey declined to get into specifics.
“That’s something we owe our colleagues first,” he said, referring to his fellow FBS commissioners. “I think I’ve been consistent in that observation.”
The four power conference commissioners are set to have a call this weekend in advance of next week’s CFP meetings in Dallas, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. There’s expected to be an update of what transpired at Wednesday’s Big Ten-SEC meeting and potential steps ahead for the CFP, according to sources.
For almost a year, multiple sources in both leagues have indicated a strong preference for expanding the field to 14 teams in 2026 and beyond. Sources in the SEC and the Big Ten have also favored a certain number of automatic playoff spots for each league, but even within each league there remain varying opinions.
Sources in the Big Ten seem more aligned in their desire for automatic qualifiers. A popular model includes four guaranteed teams each from the Big Ten and SEC, two teams each from the Big 12 and ACC, one spot for the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion, and one at-large spot, which could go to Notre Dame if the Irish were ranked high enough for inclusion.
While Sankey declined to speak directly about automatic qualifiers, he said the leagues have talked about everything regarding format and will continue to.
“This is not a new issue,” Sankey said.
Petitti said that because of the way the power is divided, eventually both leagues need to come to a consensus on what they want it to look like moving forward — but there are no restrictions on where ideas can come from moving forward.
“The process going forward if we decide to make changes contemplates that the structure of that is led by the SEC and the Big Ten, so it requires us to get to a consensus to make a meaningful recommendation, if any, to our colleagues in other leagues, and it also requires us to give them an opportunity to weigh in on whatever it is that we’re thinking about,” he said.
Sankey said the 2026 season is a “pretty small part” of the agenda for next week’s CFP meeting in Dallas, during which much of the time is expected to focus on 2025. This week was an opportunity, though, for both conferences to start in-person discussions about the future.
“I think we both individually owe our colleagues an update on our thinking,” Sankey said. “Is it alignment? I’m not going to use that word. We’ve got our issues to work through. Our regular-season scheduling issue … can we compare notes? Absolutely, but I’d be cautious about using the word ‘alignment’ at this point.”
Sankey said he still wants a stronger understanding of the selection committee’s decision-making process over the past few years. He pointed to inconsistencies in the value of conference championship games and strength of schedule.
“We entrust them with that work, but there are domino effects from those selection decisions,” Sankey said. “I’m not forming the agenda [for next week], but I’m identifying things that are regularly a part of our conversation.”
Petitti echoed what former selection committee chair and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said, which was that the committee did what was required of them according to the system designed by the commissioners.
“I believe the committee was doing the work that was set in place,” Petitti said. “… Overall, that system that is taking place is part of the ideas we’re raising about the process for next year because that would give the committee more flexibility to do the job in a way that’s much clearer for fans.”
On Monday, SEC coaches met with the league’s athletic directors, and the ADs met again separately on Tuesday here as part of their regularly scheduled meetings before the Big Ten joined them. Sankey said considerations for a nine-game league schedule remain a part of their consideration, but no decisions have been made yet.
“I think there’s a lot of interest,” Sankey said. “People change, positions change … understanding the selection committee’s perspective and how the criteria is applied is an important element.”
As expected, Wednesday’s meeting also included discussions about the House vs. NCAA settlement and future NCAA governance. Attorneys for both leagues were present to avoid anything that might be construed as collusion. Petitti said that while the Big Ten and SEC are leading the future format decisions of the CFP, the NCAA governance conversations have been “incredibly collaborative and involves everybody.”
“People are working together,” Petitti said. “… The work that’s been down around the settlement among the conferences is probably unprecedented in terms of the amount of collaboration that’s required to get this right.”
As far as the CFP conversations, Sankey said the Big Ten and SEC have “deployed leadership in a responsible way.”
“Moving forward, Tony described a methodology that was agreed to by everyone a year ago for how decisions will be made by everyone — not dictated by us — agreed to by everyone,” he said. “We have a responsibility to use that wisely.”
