American commissioner Tim Pernetti pushing for Group of Six playoff with a twist

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The Group of Six playoff idea is one of those college football topics that tends to come up every year and go nowhere fast. Tim Pernetti is trying to change that.

Pernetti first floated the idea at his introductory press conference in spring 2024, before he’d even officially started the job. He wasn’t lobbying for more CFP spots. He knew the six-year deal was locked and the Group of Six’s automatic bid was what it was. The American had earned that bid last season and nearly did the year before. What he said instead was that there was room for more.

What that means in practice is a standalone Group of Six playoff for the five conference champions who don’t earn the CFP’s automatic bid. The semifinals would be played on Tuesday and Wednesday of CFP semifinal week, with the CFP games following on Thursday. The Group of Six’s existing automatic bid to the CFP remains unchanged.

“There is demand for more postseason football,” Pernetti recently said on The Big Mountain Podcast, per Football Scoop. “You have five conference champions that are not going to the Playoff. How do we create a new enterprise that complements the CFP? Maybe we play on Tuesday and Wednesday, leading into Thursday. There’s a gap there — from Sunday NFL, Monday Night Football, Group of Six playoff, Group of Six playoff, CFP, CFP, back to the NFL. You could create the greatest gauntlet for a football fan ever seen in life by doing something like that.”

And based on what he said this week, people are starting to listen.

“We are having discussions about it, just knocking around the idea,” Pernetti added. “I think there’s something to it because it’s a new enterprise: best-on-best in the Group of Six. There’s a lot of folks out there from the brand and media side that are really interested in knowing more about this. I think we have a responsibility to run that idea out and see what it looks like, and make a decision on whether or not it makes sense to pursue it.”

The concept isn’t without its problems. The best Group of Six team won’t even be playing in this tournament; they’ll be in the CFP. So by definition, whatever title comes out of Pernetti’s bracket goes to the second-best conference champion at minimum. There’s also a legitimate case to be made that a functioning Group of Six playoff actually makes the CFP access fight harder, not easier, and would give the sport’s power brokers a convenient off-ramp from ever-expanding inclusion.

The reality is that five conference champions get left out of the CFP every single year, and nothing about that is changing anytime soon. Pernetti isn’t pretending otherwise. He’s been making this case since his first day on the job, and the response from brand and media partners suggests there’s actually something here worth pursuing. Whether it ever gets off the ground depends on money, buy-in, and a broadcast deal that doesn’t exist yet. But this conversation has gotten further than it usually does, and Pernetti seems intent on seeing it through.

The post American commissioner Tim Pernetti pushing for Group of Six playoff with a twist appeared first on Awful Announcing.

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