We can all breathe an enormous sigh of aid: Finally, the SEC is moving to a nine-game conference football schedule.
Stop the presses!
It solely took them 4 years of debating, arguing and posturing.
But what does this move mean for the larger panorama of faculty soccer?
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For one, it means fewer SEC video games towards non-power conference opponents in FBS and people in FCS, because the league will retain its requirement for faculties to play not less than one non-conference recreation towards a fellow energy league workforce or Notre Dame (sure, meaning 10 energy league video games).
But the move’s most notable affect could lie with the future of the College Football Playoff format.
Let’s first begin off with a reality: This could not mean something instantly for the CFP format, and there may be unlikely to be any settlement on a future format very quickly.
Yes, the SEC’s choice could ease and make extra productive conversations with Big Ten officers over a future format, nevertheless it doesn’t mean Big Ten leaders will leap to agree with the proposed “5+11” format that the SEC, ACC and Big 12 have brazenly supported.
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In reality, on Thursday, one Big Ten official advised Yahoo Sports that whereas the SEC’s move is a constructive step, the league has extra considerations, most notably associated to the CFP choice committee’s standards of selecting what could be 11 at-large playoff groups.
After the SEC’s move to a nine-game conference schedule, the stress is on Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. (Louis Grasse/Getty Images)
(Louis Grasse through Getty Images)
Remember, in accordance to an settlement that each one the FBS conferences signed final 12 months, the Big Ten and SEC maintain authority over future CFP codecs so long as they’ve “meaningful” dialog with the ACC and Big 12.
The disagreement between the 2 conferences lingers. One desires extra at-large choices and one other desires extra automated qualifiers. The Big Ten proposed 16 and even 28-team formats that grant an unequal quantity of AQs to particular leagues, as many as 4 to every the SEC and Big Ten in a 16-team mannequin circulated this previous spring and 7 AQs for the 2 leagues in a mannequin that emerged final week.
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The ACC and Big 12, together with the SEC, have thrown their collective weight behind the 5+11 mannequin, and so have the Group of Six conferences plus Notre Dame. It’s put the Big Ten on an island and has resulted in an deadlock in CFP format negotiations.
The SEC’s need for a 5+11 format “remains” after the move to a nine-game conference schedule, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey advised Paul Finebaum on his present on Thursday. “There are other ideas that have been talked about. We haven’t taken positions on those. Lot of work to be done,” he mentioned.
The most up-to-date “other” thought is a 24 or 28-team format circulated final week by Big Ten leaders. While some SEC college executives are enthusiastic about exploring such a mannequin, many others — particularly the league’s room of presidents — are turned off by such a big postseason discipline, to the purpose that one quipped not too long ago, “It’s a non-starter.”
Is the SEC’s move to 9 video games a compromise to the Big Ten to get that conference on board with the 5+11 mannequin? After all, Big Ten directors and coaches have made it clear that they have been towards a move to a format with such a giant at-large pool if the SEC remained at eight conference video games. They consider the league would have a bonus in touchdown these at-large spots (they have been most likely proper on that pondering, by the best way).
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But it might take weeks or months for the Big Ten to collect sufficient help to push apart its directors and coaches’ need to have a extra NFL-like discipline with automated qualifiers.
However, the SEC’s move to 9 wasn’t solely for CFP causes, of course.
Money is at play right here. As beforehand reported, the faculties are in line to obtain further income from ESPN to play an additional conference recreation, as a lot as $5 million a college yearly. At essentially the most financially traumatic time in faculty sports activities, any new cash is welcomed.
There’s one thing else, too. The shift to 9 offers the league with the power to promote tickets to one other SEC recreation, to embody such a recreation in season ticket packages and to generate extra sponsorship and promoting {dollars} for that recreation.
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They’ll play each other extra too. The nine-game schedule will comply with a “3-6” mannequin, the place every college performs three everlasting opponents and 6 rotating annually, assuring every of the 16 faculties play the opposite not less than as soon as in a two-year span.
By the best way, the SEC, not less than years in the past when this “3-6” mannequin was chosen, deliberate to select every college’s everlasting opponents based mostly on three concerns: (1) major and secondary rivalries; (2) geography; and (3) fairness. How do you resolve the fairness consideration? It’s fairly easy truly: The SEC’s unique plan was to use the final 10 years of win-loss information to create tiers after which pair faculties that manner. But an important part, most likely, is historic rivalries.
Anyway, again to the affect nationally.
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Thursday’s choice, for many, got here as a shock.
“That came out of nowhere,” mentioned one SEC chief.
“I wonder what changed?” contemplated one other.
Momentum grew within the spring for a nine-game schedule, coinciding with the Big Ten and SEC’s dialogue over the “4-4-2-2-1” CFP format that leaned closely on automated qualifiers. However, SEC coaches in May rejected the format, and plenty of believed that the league would doubtless stay at eight conference video games.
What modified this week?
The CFP introduced an adjustment to its choice committee standards in selecting at-large groups, extra closely weighing video games towards prime packages. Was it sufficient to tip the scales amongst a break up room of athletic administrators debating, for 4 years, between eight and 9 video games? Perhaps.
Either manner, they acquired there.
And now the query lingers: Will the Big Ten come round on the 16-team format that everybody else desires?