Mark Blaudschun
By Mark Blaudschun
FWAA Columnist
The 2025 season has begun with the usual hoopla and hysteria in such college football citadels as Austin (Tx.), Tuscaloosa (Ala.) and Clemson (S.C.).
But off the field, the chatter about expanding the current playoff system from 12 teams to 16 is on the cusp of reality.
Almost everyone is ready to take the next step, the television networks (primarily ESPN), the coaches, presumably the players and their fans and a majority of the college administrators who see billion dollar packages dancing in front of them.
And then there is the misnamed Big Ten.
They want something different, which means the people who are running the puppet leadership of Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, the people at Fox Sports.
They want a college football season which has a playoff portion running from late November until late January.
Oh, they want a 16-team playoff system--for now. But they want a plan which includes 26 to 28 teams. They want post-season conference games not for championships, but for playoff spots with the top teams receiving guaranteed spots for the upper-tier teams.
They want to sell you a "championship'' type game between say third place Penn State and fourth place Michigan rather than a battle between No. 1 Ohio State and No 2 Oregon.
Most of college football wants a simplistic five guaranteed spots for conference champions, 11 for at-large teams in a 16-team CFB playoff.
Not the Big Ten.
It wants four GUARANTEED spots for Big Ten and Southeastern Conference teams--a generous concession from the league (Big Ten) flexing its muscles with back-to-back national championships in its trophy case, don't you think?
This is from a conference which is now considering boosting its already bloated membership from 18 to as many as 20 teams in the next few years, although selling the Big 20 is even tougher for people who are reminded when it was a tightly knit 10-team league which eventually added Penn State as an 11th member in 1990.
Ah, those were the days.
But to be fair, the Big Ten is not alone in the delusion of grandeur category.
The Big 12 has 16 teams.
The SEC has expanded to Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas which is stretching geographical parameters to the limit.
The Atlantic COAST Conference has members from Texas and California.
But we digress.
The issue is this: when is the Big Ten and Commissioner Petitti going to break the log jam, approve the 16 team--11-5 configuration plan?
The 2026 season is less than a year away from its grand opening and plans have to be made---NOW.
Pettiti is an administrator whose background is in television and marketing.
And Fox Sports is a network which has dove deep into college sports motivated by ratings and advertising, which is the way it should be done, except college football retains a minimum of tradition. That means nothing to Fox.
As the latest example of TV intrusion, we give you the recent Fox televised Big 12 showdown between Utah and TexasTech last Saturday in Salt Lake City, which is located in the Mountain Time Zone.
Fox's prime Big 12 time slot is 12 p.m (Eastern). Welcome college football fans in the West to a 10 a.m. local time kickoff, which meant that pre-game meals for both teams were served in darkness? Wake up call 6 a.m.
Friday Night Lights?
How about Saturday morning scrambled eggs?
Again, another digression.
The lynch pin right now is the Big Ten, which is ridiculous.
The mob mentality in which the Big Ten went after Michigan and former coach Jim Harbaugh is amazing.
So is the role it wants to play as LEADER of the college football pack.
Until further notice, that still belongs to the SEC, which in football does mean more, although it is flexing its muscles in
men's basketball (Florida champion) women's basketball (South Carolina, runner up) baseball (LSU) and softball (Texas).
Unlike the Big Ten, which has been mostly a reactive conference, the SEC does what it wants when it wants and Commissioner Greg Sankey does not camouflage his moves.
Sankey has made it clear that while he favors an expansion to 16 teams, the SEC will be content to work with a 12-team playoff format.
And if you think he is kidding, think again.
When the COVID crisis hit five years ago, the SEC said it was playing football that fall, even if no one else did.
Now college football is expected to hold its breath and wait for the Big Ten to agree?
Please.
Take it or leave and go sit in the time out section for a bit.
The sad part of this (for Old Goats such as myself) is that the expansion beyond 12 teams will eventually come.
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