Report: Power conferences exploring working group to consider College Football Playoff formats

The power conference commissioners are exploring a working group of athletics directors to consider a variety of College Football Playoff formats, Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported. The group would include two or three ADs from each of the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and ACC.

Conference commissioners and Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua met Wednesday in Chicago for the annual fall CFP meeting. Discussions took place about its governance structure, but no serious discussion took place about future formats, executive director Rich Clark told reporters.

If the conferences finalize a working group, multiple formats could be up for discussion. The brackets range from from 16 teams to 28 to 32, Dellenger reported.

As part of the discussions – described as a “launching point” – multiple Big Ten administrators are socializing a concept that would include a field of more than 20 teams, according to Dellenger. The concept would give each power conference an equal amount of teams in the field. However, it must also generate support from the SEC since the league, along with the Big Ten, have the bulk of control in CFP discussions.

Talks of expanding the College Football Playoff field took place over the summer, and officials face a Dec. 1 deadline to make a decision for the 2026-27 season. Two models came up in conversations over the offseason: a 4-4-2-2-1 and a 5-plus-11.

The 5-plus-11 would be similar to the current 5-plus-7 format currently in place. It would include the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large teams, rather than the seven at-larges under the current model. It generated support from the Big 12, ACC and, later, the SEC.

However, the Big Ten took a different stance. It backed the 4-4-2-2-1, which would give the Big Ten and SEC four spots each in the bracket. The ACC and Big 12 would get two apiece, the Group of 6 would get one and there would be three at-large bids.

During conference media days, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti raised questions about strength of schedule while multiple league coaches called for a more unified schedule. The SEC took a big step toward making that happen, announcing last month it would increase to nine conference games beginning in 2026 – matching the Big Ten – while maintaining the one non-conference game against a power league opponent.

The ACC is also holding talks about improving its schedule to get up to 10 power conference games each year. Despite those change, On3’s Brett McMurphy reported the Big Ten doesn’t plan to require its teams to play 10 power conference opponents.