Inside the year-long CFP expansion debate that resulted in no change amid Big Ten-SEC standoff

A year of back-and-forth discussions, a betrayal or two and a compromise in the 11th hour still wasn't enough to make wholesale changes to the College Football Playoff. 

The 12-team format will continue through at least the 2026-27 season after the Big Ten and SEC failed to reach consensus on expanding the playoff before a deadline Friday. The SEC preferred 16 teams and the Big Ten demanded 24, but the path to the inevitable wasn't so cut and dry.

A year of boardroom meetings boiled down to a philosophical difference between the Big Ten and SEC, which were given decision-making power over the CFP system by its colleagues several years ago. The Big Ten wanted more automatic berths and the SEC wanted more opportunities via at-large spots. In the end, the deadline came and went, resulting in the default settings being implemented: a 12-team field with straight seeding, automatic berths for the power conference champions and an additional spot for Notre Dame if it finishes in the selection committee's top 12.

The journey to nowhere was dramatic and tested business relationships among the power conferences. Still, there was headway elsewhere: the CFP tweaked metrics involving its selection process, and the ACC and SEC opted to move from eight to nine conference games -- but did so amid uncertainty over the CFP format.

Below is a timeline of the most significant developments during the year-long debate over the CFP format.

February 2025: Momentum builds 

There was optimism coming out of New Orleans that the Big Ten and the SEC were on the same page on a variety of playoff-related issues, including future expansion. It was the second meeting of the conferences, which included commissioners, athletic directors and other league officials, to work through the issues plaguing the sport. It gave the Big Ten a chance to explain its preferred playoff format full of automatic qualifiers in person to the SEC leaders. Within the meeting, they explained that more automatic qualifiers would limit the power of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee which had been a significant source of frustration within the SEC. Coming off a season where three SEC teams (Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina) just missed the cut, automatic qualifiers didn't sound so bad anymore. 

"Make it about how you compete against your conference and take out any sort of perceived bias or politicking and campaigning and let it play out how each conference thinks is best for them," is how one source explained the Big Ten's pitch in those February meetings. 

Big Ten officials left the New Orleans meetings feeling optimistic that the message resonated, according to sources, and that the two power conferences were on the same page around a 16-team playoff headed into the spring. Multiple SEC ADs liked what they heard, too, believing the expansion with automatic qualifiers could be helpful if the SEC made its long-discussed move to nine conference games. At those meetings, the two conferences also agreed on making changes to the seeding and discussed possible intraconference scheduling opportunities. 

May-June 2025: The spring split

The Big Ten and SEC entered the spring seemingly on the same wavelength, supporting a 16-team playoff with four automatic qualifiers for the two top conferences in the sport.

Then, May hit the calendar, and all hell broke loose. The ACC and Big 12 partnered to present a 16-team playoff proposal known as the "5+11" format during an in-person meeting in Charlotte on May 15, sources told CBS Sports. It would give five AQs to the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large spots. The Big Ten and SEC had long discussed and seemingly agreed on an AQ format since February, with Big Ten officials feeling bullish during its spring meetings in California about its chances of getting over the finish line. At the time, the Big Ten was more concerned about getting the ACC and Big 12 on board, even though it wasn't necessary to make changes, than whether it had a partner in the SEC. 

But not all was as it appeared when the SEC's spring meetings began on the sandy, picturesque beaches of Destin, Florida.

Facing a scheduling dilemma of their own, as a two-year debate on whether to expand from eight to nine conference games hit a boiling point, SEC coaches spoke up about the playoff behind closed doors: they preferred the ACC and Big 12's "5+11" format. The development rippled across the country, surprising Big Ten executives who believed the SEC had its back on a multi-AQ field.

"We're not committed at this point to something," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the evening before his conference's annual spring meetings.

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June 2025: The summer reset

Conference executives met at length in June and exited meetings with open minds to discuss all format possibilities.

"I don't think anything's completely off the table," CFP executive director Rich Clark said.

The meetings in Asheville, North Carolina, were primarily focused on tweaking the strength-of-schedule metrics used by the selection committee to determine playoff teams. The SEC, which was still debating whether to move from eight to nine conference games, was the primary motivator. The power conferences agreed to explore introducing new metrics for the committee to utilize, and those were quickly adopted.

Meanwhile, the conferences realized no one was budging from their bunkers. The ACC, Big 12 and SEC preferred a 16-team format with five AQs to the highest-rated conference champions and 11 at-large berths. The Big Ten preferred a format with four AQs for the Big Ten and SEC, and two for the ACC and Big 12.

Hope, ever so slight, renewed that new proposals could be developed before a Dec. 1 deadline.

"I don't think that they're going to kick the can a second year," Clark said. "They're going to make a decision on what that whole period (2026-31) should look like."

August 2025: The Big Ten's big idea

As momentum for a 16-team field with 11 at-large spots gained steam among three of the four power conferences, the Big Ten developed a counter: more teams, more opportunities.

Conference officials developed plans for 24- and 28-team fields, CBS Sports reported on Aug. 16. The idea was to entice the SEC with a proposal for multiple automatic qualifiers, with the two largest conferences receiving the most qualifiers. One proposal included as many as seven AQs apiece for the Big Ten and SEC, with the Big 12 and ACC receiving five.

The ACC and Big 12, however, quickly rebuffed the idea of a system with unequal AQs among the power conferences.

The other power leagues almost immediately stamped out the idea, but because of the Big Ten's power in the room, the league did not back down from its proposal of a 24-team playoff.

It was at this point that it became clear to conference executives that expansion for the 2026-27 season was unlikely, though discussions continued through the fall.

November 2025: Thanksgiving extension

Talks among the conferences slowed in the fall. Their positions were known and no one was budging. 

ESPN's Dec. 1 deadline, however, was fast approaching with no resolution and very little in the way of formal meetings to discuss the impasse since August.

At September meetings in Chicago, CFP executive director Rich Clark said the 11 leaders only spent about 20 minutes of a four-hour meeting discussing playoff expansion. "My sense is the room's comfortable with (staying at 12) if that's where we go, and that's probably why they're not too pressed with rushing to make a decision," Clark said. 

The CFP's media partner agreed during Thanksgiving week to extend its deadline from Dec. 1 until Jan. 23, the week of the upcoming national championship game in Miami. 

Hope was renewed that expansion could still happen.

January 2026: The compromise

The Big Ten floated a compromise to the conferences on the eve of its final meeting: a 16-team playoff, with the caveat of committing to expanding to 24 within three years.

Big Ten sources believed the temporary 16-team field could change the SEC's stance.

The stopgap would also buy conferences time to unwind one of the sport's most complicated obstacles: conference championship games, which are tied up in lucrative and overlapping media rights agreements through at least the end of the decade. The belief was that power conferences would eliminate their conference championship games in the new model.

The SEC showed no signs of budging on its preference for a 16-team field in a "5+11" format. Sankey, according to sources, informed Petitti he couldn't commit to 24. Petitti, in turn, told him he couldn't commit to 16 unless there was a pathway to 24. 

"There's no momentum to expand just for the sake of expanding," a power conference executive told CBS Sports. "There's this notion that college sports are really good about being reactionary and taking a short-term gain and not looking at the long-term implications of it."

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Jan. 18, 2026: The mad dash to nowhere

CFP executives met, as expected, on Jan. 18 in Miami, but no progress was made. The 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame's athletics director instead hurriedly exited meetings, knowing full well that negotiations between the Big Ten and SEC had stalled.

"Still more work to do," Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said as he breezed past reporters. "Not done working." 

American commissioner Tim Pernetti was a bit more direct on the hold-up.

"That's up to two people in the room," he said, referencing the Big Ten and SEC's months-long disagreements.

Jan. 23, 2026: 12 becomes inevitable

The Big Ten and SEC's cold war didn't end on Friday. It was merely extended. The deadline for a decision on expansion passed without progress, resulting in the default scenario: a 12-team playoff for at least one more season.

With all the power residing in the Big Ten and SEC, it sets up what could be another year full of ups-and-downs and tense negotiations. 

The Big Ten has won the last three national championships with three different members. It has pushed hard for expansion and yet has flourished under the current 12-team playoff model. Petitti would like to get something done but seemingly has strong leverage and isn't intent on giving it away for nothing. 

The SEC hasn't had a team in the last three national championships, but still believes it has the strongest conference from top-to-bottom. With the nine-game conference schedule going into effect in 2026, it wants expansion but believes 24 teams is too much and would create even more calendar problems for the sport. The threat of the SEC breaking off to host its own playoff will always loom over the discussions. 

At the start of 2025, there was optimism that the two most powerful conferences were aligned on the future of the sport and ready to enact changes. By the start of 2026, the chasm between those two heavyweights had significantly deepened with many wondering how to break the current impasse.