Big Ten, SEC have found themselves in College Football Playoff stalemate

The 2026 edition of the College Football Playoff is just 17 months away. That year will be when ESPN’s new billion-dollar deal will kick in but we do not know what the structure of that field will be. It doesn’t sound like a final answer is coming anytime soon.

At its yearly July media event, the SEC has made it known that they want to know what the selection process will look like in the new playoff format before locking in a full-time conference scheduling model. The league has not publicly backed the 5+11 or 4+4+2+2+1 playoff expansion model that would include play-in games on conference championship weekend. The Big 12 and ACC support the former. The Big Ten wants the latter. The SEC seems to be sitting in the middle.

The Big Ten is now drawing a line in the sand. On3’s Brett McMurphy reports that the coast-to-coast conference “will not back off its preferred College Football Playoff format, guaranteeing the league four automatic qualifiers, unless the SEC decides to add a ninth conference game”

“There’s no way (Big Ten commissioner) Tony (Petitti) moves off four AQs.”

What does this mean? Well, it means that the SEC is likely staying at eight conference games in 2026, but what happens in 2027 is still up for debate. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said this week in Atlanta that his league would need to set the 2026 conference model before the 2027 season starts in five weeks. That is the first step. The next step will be establishing the playoff format in 2026. The deadline for establishing that format is Dec. 1.

College football still needs to figure out what the future looks like. That starts with making a long-term commitment with the playoff. The SEC’s schedule will not have long-term stability until that happens. We will continue to play the waiting game as the administrators at the top of the food chain continue to negotiate and try to find any leverage they can. Months ago it looked like the SEC and Big Ten had true alignment. Now there is fighting at the negotiation table between the two most powerful entities in college athletics.

Keeping an eight-game schedule is a move that Kentucky has long supported. It gives the program security for the Governor’s Cup series and keeps an avenue open to a College Football Playoff berth. That would become much tougher if the league plays a nine-game schedule. If that move ever arrives, it could mean the end of the in-state series with Louisville.

For now that series is safe but we all know things can change fast.