SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said on February 19th that they think the way schools are seeded in the 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP) needs to change this Fall.
Last season, the NCAA increased the number of teams that qualify for the College Football Playoff from four to 12. Under this new format, the four highest-ranked Conference Champions earned the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff as well as a first-round bye. Despite other schools having extra time off, it was the eighth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes who defeated the seventh-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish 34-23 in the CFP National Championship Game to secure the school’s first title since 2015.
Even though the new format was supposed to generate more competition, that wasn’t the case. Several CFP games were blowouts with six of the 11 matchups being decided by more than two touchdowns. Only two College Football Playoff games were decided by one score in 2025.
“I’m prepared to vote for seeding change, but it has to be unanimous,” Sankey explained. In order to make any modifications to the College Football Playoff for the 2025-26 season, all ten FBS commissioners and the athletic director of Notre Dame University must unanimously agree on the decision.
“We’re in favor of going to a straight seeding, where there’s no difference between rankings and seeding like we had this year,” said Petitti. “We’re in support of that for next year.”
Sankey did not get into specifics when asked what changes his conference would like to see made to the CFP format.
“That’s something we owe our colleagues first,” he said. “I think I’ve been consistent in that observation.”
Seven of the 12 teams that qualified for the 2025 College Football Playoff belonged to either the SEC or the Big Ten. Since they make up such a large part of the CFP pie, both conferences will likely need to be aligned in their thinking and what reforms they want to see.
“The process going forward – if we decide to make changes – contemplates that the structure of that is led by the SEC and the Big Ten, so it requires us to get to a consensus to make a meaningful recommendation, if any, to our colleagues in other leagues, and it also requires us to give them an opportunity to weigh in on whatever it is that we’re thinking about,” Petitti said.
“I think we both individually owe our colleagues an update on our thinking. Is it alignment? I’m not going to use that word,” Sankey said. “We’ve got our issues to work through. Our regular-season scheduling issue… Can we compare notes? Absolutely. But, I’d be cautious about using the word ‘alignment’ at this point.”
Sankey and Petitti made these comments following the conclusion of a joint meeting of athletic directors representing their respective conferences on Wednesday. Petitti and Sankey are scheduled to to meet with other FBS commissioners in Dallas, Texas in a few days to conduct a detailed review of the 12-team College Football Playoff.
