ROSEMONT, Ill. – The proposed 12-team College Football Playoff would make winning a conference more important than ever, with six spots reserved for league champions.
Every major college football conference plays a title game, but how the participants are determined – division winners or best overall records – differs.
On Thursday at the Big Ten Conference office outside Chicago, the college football leaders who manage the playoff opened two days of meetings they hope will end with consensus around the core piece of the plan: How many teams?
Already, though, the trickle-down troubles are starting to pop up, including finding the optimal way to determine a conference champion while also best positioning the league for playoff participation.
During the first seven seasons of the CFP, a conference has twice placed more than one team in the field of four. In 2017, Georgia and Alabama, which didn’t even win its division, made it from the Southeastern Conference. Last year, the Atlantic Coast Conference, benefiting from Notre Dame’s pandemic-induced league participation, placed both the Fighting Irish and ACC champion Clemson in the playoff.