One of the weirder storylines of the college football offseason has been the talk of more College Football Playoff expansion before the first games of the 12-team CFP are played. The latest proposed model feels like a step too far.

According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, administrators are discussing a 14-team Playoff. A proposed model has 11 of the 14 spots being awarded to automatic qualifiers. The SEC and Big Ten would get 3 bids each. The Big 12 and ACC would get 2 bids each. The 11th automatic bid would go to a team from the Group of 5. The remaining three bids would go to at-large teams.

The proposed 14-team model would begin in 2026. For 2024 and ’25 things are set with the 5+7 12-team Playoff. The next two seasons will be the 5 highest-ranked conference champions and 7 at-large teams.

The 12-team Playoff is likely to be SEC/B1G-heavy, with 7 spots up for grabs. The two super conferences instead want guaranteed spots.

Going too far? This is actually the compromise.

As Alabama and Georgia demonstrated in the 4-team Playoff, a conference championship isn’t always a necessary step to winning a national championship. There was already some debate about whether a non-conference champion should make the Playoff, but non-champions were generally accepted as being among the 4 best teams.

It’s not hard to see how we got here. After the latest round of realignment, the Power 5 has shrunk to the Power 4. Even calling it a Power 4 is generous, as the SEC and Big Ten have all the leverage, especially since the two conferences are working together in a joint advisory group.

Starting in the 2024 season, 34 programs, including many of the biggest brands and most successful teams of the 4-team CFP era, will play in the SEC or B1G. Since the Big Ten decided to expand west, fans and pundits have openly pondered the SEC and B1G breaking away from the NCAA. Reporting from ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Heather Dinich reveals that the breakaway possibility isn’t just fan and pundit speculation:

One high-ranking official involved in the discussions told ESPN on Wednesday that the presidents and chancellors in both the SEC and Big Ten are having conversations about whether to continue their NCAA membership. …

“Those conversations are happening,” the source said, adding some feel “pretty strongly about pulling away. I’d say very strongly.”

According to reports, the SEC and B1G sought 4 bids each in a previously proposed 14-team model, leaving just 1 at-large bid. The compromise is 3 & 3, with 3 at-large bids.

The SEC and B1G have leverage in a time when the future of the driving sport in college sports is being shaped. Oh, yeah, and there are contracts with insane amounts of money involved.

It’s understandable that the 2 true power conferences are out for themselves, but it feels like a loss for the fans.

The SEC Championship Game with its rich history will be reduced to… playing for a first-round bye? Going mask off and making the ACC and Big 12 sign on to admitted second-class status in a 14-team Playoff should give even the most diehard SEC/B1G supporters pause about where the sport is heading.

It’s established that at-large teams can win it all, but guaranteeing 6-of-14 bids to teams that did not win their conference feels like a step too far. A large pool of at-large bids, like the 12-team Playoff of the next two seasons, would sort out which conferences should get the most bids in a given season.

It’s only a proposal that has not been officially adopted, but all indications are that fans should get ready for the College Football Invitational to crown future national champions.

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