Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has been moving heaven and earth to try to convince the college football world to embrace his automatic qualifiers idea for College Football Playoff expansion.
And now we know why.
According to Pat Forde at Sports Illustrated, the controversial idea to give the Big Ten and SEC four automatic qualifiers for an expanded 16-team College Football Playoff is all about extracting more television revenue money from broadcast partners.
The automatic qualifiers would come from teams 3-6 playing in a playoff for the CFP bids while teams 1-2 in the conference would still play in a conference championship game.
One answer, according to four sources familiar with CFP discussions, is that Petitti has made assurances of a play-in payday for Big Ten broadcast partners and campus administrators. That major alteration to the way college football is played would require a format that delivers four automatic bids from three games: the top two teams facing off for the Big Ten championship, with both guaranteed a CFP spot; a matchup of the third-place and sixth-place programs with the winner advancing to the playoff; and a game between the fourth-place and fifth-place teams for a CFP bid.
ESPN has College Football Playoff rights locked down for now, but this is a way for Petitti to get his Big Ten broadcast partners in Fox, NBC, and CBS a potential pathway to what amounts to preliminary playoff games.
But as for whether it’s actually a good idea or just a naked play for more revenue and more power over college football, it’s easy to see why nobody outside the Big Ten has jumped on board. And if the networks were wise, they should be hesitant as well.
Conference play-in games could present decent ratings, but what would the point be of a conference championship game with those two teams already guaranteed a CFP spot? Why go through an unnecessary song and dance for seeding purposes when both teams would either likely host a playoff game or play at a neutral site? Are we mandated to have so many Dr. Pepper halftime chest pass competitions?
Furthermore, as has been pointed out by Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, it would leave Big Ten teams with absolutely no incentive to schedule any watchable non-conference games. Surely Fox, NBC, and CBS wouldn’t be excited to sacrifice a quarter of their schedule for an Indiana-Oregon and Illinois-Michigan play-in round.
And then there’s the sporting integrity of giving so many automatic qualifying spots to two power conference, further entrenching their duopoly over college football. But clearly for Tony Petitti and the Big Ten, right now that is the least of their concerns.
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