When talking about a possible new College Football Playoffs format, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti pushed for his preferred method to determine the field at his opening speech for Big Ten Media Days. As part of that push, he offered up an olive branch to the SEC to get that conference commissioner, Greg Sankey, back on the same page as the B1G.
Earlier in the morning, Petitti began a full-court push for a 16-team format using a 4-4-2-2-1 model rather than the 5-plus-11 model that the SEC and the rest of college football would like. When asked about his preference for the College Football Playoffs, the Big Ten head said as part of his proposal, an added bonus is that he wouldn't care if "a conference" played 8 conference games compared to its own conference playing 9 conference contests. The conference he was clearly referencing was the SEC, which has steadfastly refused to add an extra conference game, preferring to keep a week late in the season open to play cupcakes to bolster their overall record.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti pushes 4-4-2-2-1 CFP format while courting SEC with 8-game schedule offer
The 8 games vs 9 games debate has been the other important issue (other than the College Football Playoffs format) that has driven a wedge between Petitti and Sankey, who used to be connected at the hip.
“We want to better connect the regular season and the postseason… We want more conference games to matter in November.”
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) July 22, 2025
Commissioner Petitti addresses the future of the CFP format. pic.twitter.com/86gItb9z3D
There was a time when Sankey and Petitti were both in favor of the 4-4-2-2-1 format where there are four guaranteed spots each for the SEC and Big Ten, two apiece for the ACC and Big 12, one for the Group of 6, and three at-large. However, outside of the Big Ten and SEC, very few schools support the format, and during SEC media days, Sankey said he was fine using the 5-plus-11 model that features five highest-ranked conference champions earning automatic bids, plus 11 at-large teams selected by the CFP selection committee.
Petitti said he's mostly against the 5-plus-11 model because it gives entirely too much power to the selection committee. During his Big Ten media days opening appearance, he doubled down on that, saying, "to be clear, any college football playoff format that increases the discretion and role of the CFP selection committee will have a difficult time getting support from the Big Ten."
For now, the new format is up in the air, assuming there will be one. The Big Ten commissioner also added he's not sold on expanding to 16 teams and might be ok staying at 12. That is the stick aimed at Sankey after the carrot of giving up the fight for the SEC to add more conference games.