Here’s non-Lane Kiffin-related news that’s relevant to college football fans.
Until Monday evening, the leaders of conferences were facing a December 1 deadline to come up with a new playoff format.
But the decision-makers aren’t close to reaching an agreement. The Big Ten and SEC hold most of the power in deciding what the next format looks like and favor different formats.
It could’ve been an eventful Thanksgiving week as the commissioners negotiated a new playoff format, but they’ve been given a reprieve from having to do that.
The College Football Playoff and ESPN have extended the deadline nearly eight weeks to January 23. Whether or not that’s enough time for the Big Ten and SEC to come to an agreement remains to be seen.
Where things currently stand
Both sides have staked out their preferred playoff formats. The Big Ten wants a format that is heavy on automatic qualifiers, while the SEC wants fewer automatic bids.
There’s also the new wrinkle of how many teams will be included in the format. During the summer, the popular number was 16 teams. Now, though, there’s talk of extending the format to include 20 or more teams.
Good luck trying to reach an agreement. If no agreement is reached then the 2026 CFP will follow the same format as this year. Next season marks the beginning of a six-year, $7.8 billion deal that ESPN made to televise the CFP games. The deal brings with it an opportunity to expand the postseason from the current 12-team format.
Considering it was almost a month ago that Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported how the decision-makers were still very undecided, we can expect no changes to next year’s playoff.
This year’s playoff
The CFP selection committee will issue its updated rankings at 6 p.m. Tuesday night and there shouldn’t be much movement at the top.
Really, the only question inside the top 10 is if the committee moves No. 7 Oregon up in the rankings after beating No. 15 USC this weekend.
If the committee does move the Ducks up, it would mean Ole Miss would fall in the rankings and maybe even Texas Tech falls back one spot. If that happens, there will be questions about if the drama around Lane Kiffin and the Rebels impacted the committee’s ranking of Ole Miss.
