EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsRANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- In a rare meeting with reporters Tuesday at the Big Ten spring meetings, commissioner Tony Petitti gave his first extensive public comments in support of a 24-team College Football Playoff model, making it clear the league has no interest in pursuing a 16-team format.If the SEC doesn't pivot from its 16-team preference and support the Big Ten's proposed model, Petitti said the Big Ten will take a hard no stance on 16 for 2027 and beyond."We've had zero conversation about 16," he said. "Plan B is what we have now. We would stay with what we have now."For the current 12-team model to change, the Big Ten and the SEC have to agree on the format. The SEC will hold its spring meetings in Destin, Florida, next week, and some coaches and athletic directors have spoken in favor of a 24-team field, but commissioner Greg Sankey and the league's presidents and chancellors have continued to favor 16 -- at least for now.For almost an hour Tuesday evening, Petitti spoke with a small group of reporters in a conference room at the posh Terranea Resort about a variety of weighty issues facing college athletics, from the involvement of Congress and the White House to NIL and the overall football calendar.No topic loomed larger, though, than the future of the CFP.The Big Ten has been buzzing about a 24-team field since an internal document was circulated among league leaders in February, but Petitti's reasoning behind it has filtered out largely through sources and coaches willing to opine on the topic. On Tuesday, Petitti answered every question he was asked about it, but he repeatedly circled back to one main point: access."When I was at [Major League] baseball, we never had to convince anybody that keeping more teams in the race is better for everybody and the fans, like we never had to do that," he said. "I feel like in this space, like we're kind of being asked to do that. It's almost counterintuitive. I think that more teams alive as late as possible is a fundamental way that I thought about it when we're changing the playoff schedule."Petitti said he's at a "different place" than people who think a 24-team field will devalue the regular season because the system has "tiered incentives."Teams seeded No. 1-8 would earn a bye and a home game. The top two teams earn "the best path all the way through." And the bottom teams are constantly trying to stay in the field."At 24 you're always trying to improve your rsum," he said. "So if you're somewhere between 16 and 24, 25, the last week of the season, you've got to protect your spot. That's No. 1. If you're somewhere between 17 or 18, you're trying to get in between eight and 16 so you can get a home game. Home games are really valuable, right? So that last game you're playing, I don't understand the resting idea, because you're not ever safely in one spot. This isn't the Philadelphia Eagles who know the last week of the season whether they win or not, they can't improve their seed or make it worse."For the first time, Petitti also publicly laid out specific counterpoints to a 16-team model.Petitti said he doesn't think the economics of a 16-team field are feasible because conference championship games would likely still be eliminated, and he didn't think the playoff games would compensate for the lost revenue.Petitti said he only sees two ways a 16-team playoff works: all 16 teams play the first round with no byes, and that decreases motivation to play in a conference championship game without the winner earning a bye. Or, he said, the bracket could feature the top two teams earning first-round byes and No. 16 would face No. 13, No. 15 vs. 14, etc.Without conference championship games, Petitti said the Power 4 conferences would lose collectively more than $200 million of championship game revenue."I just don't think it works economically," he said. "I don't think it works schedulingwise as well. I think it doesn't create enough new inventory. And then the last piece, I don't think it gets enough access."Petitti said that if Sankey were to agree to a 24-team field, it could be implemented in time for the 2027 season."I don't see any scheduling reason why it couldn't happen," Petitti said. "I think we can undo our championship game, do those things, I feel like we could, I think it would be the media partner, and would they be ready to do it?"The Big Ten had pitched a compromise plan to start with 16 if the SEC would eventually go to 24, but those talks have dissipated. Still, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said he'd be fine with starting at 16 "as long as we were getting to the number 24.""I think 24 stops it, stops the conversation," Manuel said. "There's no way I could ever see us going past 24."
