Tony Petitti makes case for play-in weekend, defends it as option for College Football Playoff

The future format of the College Football Playoffs beyond the upcoming season remains a great debate amongst the college football powers-that-be. That includes between the NCAA’s two most lucrative conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC.

Last week as SEC Media Days in Atlanta, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey once again affirmed his league’s hard-line stance in favor of a 5+11 16-team format that allows for 11 at-large bids. That flies in direct opposition to the Big Ten-backed 4+4+2+2+1+1 model that would grant the Big Ten and SEC four automatic bids apiece, while the ACC and Big 12 receive just two bids for their respective leagues.

To little surprise, that format has been overwhelmingly rejected by the other two Power conferences, with the Big 12 going all-in on the 5+11 model as well.

Of course, in the face of overwhelming opposition against leagues having multiple automatic bids, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti remains confident college football fans at large will eventually come around to his way of thinking, especially when it comes to the proposed play-in games. The idea would be to effectively add games during what is now championship weekend that allows the top four or six teams in each league to play their way into the 16-team Playoff field.

“Look, we feel pretty strongly that fans will really gravitate toward a play-in weekend. That providing games that are do-or-die on the field will drive fan interest,” Petitti said Tuesday at Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas. “[…] 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.”

When asked a follow-up question about why the Big Ten’s best teams should be forced to play an additional play-in game just to make the Playoffs, Petitti praised his conference’s head coaches for being willing to gamble on a potential Playoff bid for the good of the league at large.

“First I have to commend our coaches, because they obviously talk about the same thing you just raised: ‘Hey, if I’m in position, I could get hurt by losing a (play-in) game.’ I think where our coaches came down, and our ADs, was that at the end of the day, there are 18 members in the Big Ten. You have 17 available opponents and you play nine of them. … Even within our own league, we’ve got to give teams a chance,” Petitti said. “Where we came down is that we were willing to take that risk. If you have 16 teams, there’s still a catch-all where there’s potentially three at-larges. … But at the end of the day, I think our coaches are willing to take that risk because what they’re thinking about is not a snap-shot of any one season, they’re looking at how they get more teams in contention.

“I think it’s in every league’s interest, not just ours, to have more teams emerging. Like Indiana did last year. Giving more teams a chance to compete. And there’s just huge value in have (more) games across (the board).”

Petitti then cited how Ohio State went onto sweep the 2024 College Football Playoff and claim its first national championship in a decade despite finishing the regular season as the No. 4 team in the Big Ten standings with a 10-2 record.

“If you’re 6-3 in the Big Ten, I’d argue that’s a great record. And if you stumble in a non-conference game, I don’t know why that disqualifies you. 8-4 as a winning percentage, if you project that winning percentage in every other sport, I’m pretty sure you make the postseason,” Petitti concluded. “We’ve conditioned ourself that if you’re not a 1 or 2-loss team, you’re not worthy of competing. There are plenty of teams in professional sports that qualify for the playoffs who can’t get past the first-round game. That’s OK, because they still get to play. We’ll figure it out on the field rather than sitting in a room.”