Report: Tony Petitti's College Football Playoff push stems from promises to Big Ten members, TV partners

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti’s push for automatic qualifiers to the College Football Playoff stems from two key factors, Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde reported. The commissioner reportedly made promises to the league’s TV partners and members.

Part of Petitti’s push for a 4-4-2-2-1 format includes play-in games to determine which teams make the field, along with the conference champions. According to SI, Petitti suggested the play-in games – featuring the No. 3 vs. No. 6 teams and No. 4 vs. No. 5 teams in the standings – could be split among the Big Ten’s media partners.

FOX would likely carry the Big Ten Championship while NBC and CBS would split the two play-in games, SI reported. A Big Ten spokesperson denied that idea while speaking with SI.

The Big Ten and SEC have the bulk of the control when it comes to the future of the College Football Playoff, but appear to be at odds on the idea of expansion. In addition to the 4-4-2-2-1 format, a 5-plus-11 model is on the table. That would include the five highest-ranked conference champions along with 11 at-large spots.

The 4-4-2-2-1 model, meanwhile, would give the Big Ten and SEC four bids apiece. The Big 12 and ACC would each get two spots, the Group of 6 would get one, and there would be three at-large teams to round out the 16-team bracket.

In the spring, the two conferences discussed the proposals and the SEC began to shift away from the 4-4-2-2-1. Coaches began to voice their support for the 5-plus-11 model at the spring meetings and continued to do so last week at the conference’s media days.

The Big Ten, meanwhile, is not moving away from the automatic qualifiers and is championing the 4-4-2-2-1 bracket. On3’s Brett McMurphy also reported the conference won’t let up on that idea unless the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule.

During his opening remarks this week in Las Vegas, Tony Petitti further defended the idea of play-in games for the College Football Playoff. He pointed out the fan interest that could come as a result.

“Look, we feel pretty strongly that fans will really gravitate toward a play-in weekend,” Petitti said. “That providing games that are do-or-die on the field will drive fan interest. … I just believe that in talking to our league, the weekend that we’re talking about, where you’ll have championship games and across all conferences meaningful play-in games, I don’t see how that’s a bad thing for college football. And I think fans will gravitate to it.”