The latest College Football Playoff proposal from the Big Ten is leading many to wonder what the endgame is for the sport’s new postseason format. If one of the biggest conferences is willing even to float the idea of a 28-team Playoff, how far are they willing to go?
Longtime commentator Ryen Russillo believes there is no limit to what leaders in the sport will do to chase television money.
On his podcast this week, Russillo called the Big Ten’s proposal “one of the dumbest f*cking ideas I’ve ever heard” and expressed hope that the “collective outrage” for it among college football fans would serve as a warning sign for the sport’s leadership.
At the same time, Russillo reminded his audience that college football has already had three different formats for selecting a champion since 1997. The sport can never make up its mind, and Russillo believes this is because it cannot help but constantly chase big, lucrative deals with television networks.
“College football is attempting to devalue its product, but I guess I can’t hit you with the actual value lost in dollars,” Russillo said. “But at least the professional leagues understand that all the teams, at the end of the day, have to find a way to be good partners. And college football, it feels like the only partnership that they really care about is the television money.”
To lay out his point, Russillo gave the example of a 100-team Playoff. Everyone would agree that crosses a line. But Russillo doesn’t believe conference commissioners or CFP leadership know how big they are actually willing to go. Instead, they are following the lead of distributors like ESPN, who simply want more content.
“This devalues anything feeling special about it if you had this many teams,” Russillo said. “And whatever that line is, college football, they don’t break it. They put their head down, smash through it, only looking one step ahead.”
As we covered in the Monday edition of our “A Block” newsletter, the Big Ten proposal may have been even more about television than Russillo is claiming. A 28-team Playoff would need more than one television partner, so if you really want to analyze that leak with a tinfoil hat on, the Big Ten may have been doing its friends at Fox Sports a solid. With so many games, the CFP would almost have to invite another television partner — and Fox would be right there to bid on the rights happily.
It’s easy to see that Russillo is right. The primary force dictating decisions in college athletics right now is the television revenue that football games can generate. How far the sport’s leaders are willing to go in chasing that —at the expense of almost everything else — remains to be seen.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.