Pac-12 issues statement calling for adjustment to key aspect of proposed expanded College Football Playoff
By SDS Staff
Published:
The process of expanding the College Football Playoff is officially moving forward, but one Power 5 conference is already publicly taking issue with one of the key aspects of setting the proposed field of 12 teams.
On Friday, outgoing Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott issued a statement calling for the Autonomy 5 (Power 5) conference champions to receive automatic Playoff bids:
“The Pac-12 supports expansion of the CFP and believes that the Autonomy Five champions should annually qualify for the CFP. We greatly appreciate the work of the CFP sub-committee as well as the thoughtful and productive discussions amongst the management committee this week in Chicago. We now look forward to reviewing the expansion proposal more thoroughly with our members, student-athletes, partners and other key stakeholders.”
Under the proposed expansion, the field of 12 teams would include the six highest-ranked conference champions, plus the six highest-ranked other teams as determined by the CFP selection committee. No conference would qualify automatically and there would be no limit on the number of participants from a conference.
As one would expect, the Pac-12 was widely called out on social media for expressing concern about being left out of a 12-team field.
Tough look
Can you still be a Power 5 conference if you are worried that your highest ranking football team might not be ranked above several Group of 5 conferences? https://t.co/M89sqUqSbY
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) June 18, 2021
https://twitter.com/jpgilbert/status/1405965145784918020
Translation: "In 2020 the Pac12 would not have gotten an autobid to the expanded playoff because our conf champ team was ranked behind both the champs of the AAC and SunBelt. As a result, we want to be guaranteed an autobid going forward because we super scurrrred." https://t.co/GvEkxFVynD
— Geoff Johnston (@geoffjBYU) June 18, 2021
The PAC-12 legitimately doesn’t believe it will get a team in even when the field TRIPLES in size https://t.co/9UZ73qGXjG
— Henry (@thehankhutton) June 18, 2021
You know G5 conferences, such as @SunBelt have come a long way when the @pac12 is so worried they can't qualify for one of 12 playoff spots, even though they have every monetary/recruiting advantage in the world. https://t.co/owNTDeDEed
— Chris Woodard (@cswoodard84) June 18, 2021
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