CFP committee shuts down ESPN idea for 20-team playoff

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The idea for a 20-team College Football Playoff from ESPN has come and gone faster than you can say Tim Biakabutuka.

The debate over CFP expansion has been a pitched battle between the Power 2 conferences that cannot come to an agreement on the best pathway forward. The Big Ten is pushing a 24-team model that would guarantee major conferences automatic qualifiers. The SEC is pushing a 16-team model that would largely leave much of the current framework in place. And to this point, it seems as if neither side is willing to budge.

It appeared that the current CFP rightsholder, ESPN, was seeking something of a compromise solution. The network reportedly was forwarding the idea of replacing conference championship games with play-in games in the four remaining major leagues. Those play-in games would then decide the last spots in a 16-team tournament, making a grand total of 20 qualifiers.

The reasoning from ESPN’s side seems sound. But this is college football, so everyone is ultimately out for their own best interests in a thirst to accumulate as much power and wealth as they can. This “20-team” model, which is effectively a 16-team tournament with play-in games, could theoretically preserve ESPN’s exclusive rights for the CFP. (ESPN does choose to sublicense some CFP games to TNT Sports, particularly those going head-to-head against NFL games.) Naturally, the Big Ten’s 24-team model would open the door for their main rights partner, Fox Sports, to finally get involved.

And perhaps that’s why the 20-team version did not go anywhere. But hilariously, according to Chris Vannini at The Athletic, the idea was only discussed at this week’s CFP meeting of the minds when someone brought up a tweet of podcaster and ESPN personality Josh Pate floating that it was “privately cooking for a while.”

Apparently it was not cooking like all those viral Emeril Lagasse clips, but rather it got nuked in the microwave and then exploded. The 20-team idea reportedly was met by a discussion that was “brief and dismissed.”

The notion was a surprise to almost everyone on a Monday videoconference of the CFP management committee (made up of 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director), said sources who were on the call. The 20-team format wasn’t on the agenda, and it only came up after one participant inquired about an X post from college football media personality Josh Pate, who wrote on Sunday that the idea was percolating. Discussion of the matter during Monday’s meeting was brief and dismissed, as the agenda instead focused on potential CFP expansion to 16 and 24 teams. But those conversations didn’t advance much, either.

All credit to ESPN, the 20-team idea is actually a tangible idea that could lead us somewhere. But clearly the Big Ten and Fox Sports saw through the mirage of compromise to see that it would still leave Bristol holding all the CFP cards. Of course, taking a step back, it’s incredible to think that television networks could have deciding roles in actually shaping how a sport decides its champion. Could you imagine the networks telling the NFL that it would like to see the Super Bowl turn into a best-of-three series?

Now we’re back to square one, and a deal looks further away than ever before. The reality is there is simply too much at stake between the alliances of Fox/Big Ten and ESPN/SEC when it comes to the golden goose of College Football Playoff expansion. And the more that ideas get dismissed and the more the two super conferences dig their heels in, the closer we get to college football Armageddon.

The post CFP committee shuts down ESPN idea for 20-team playoff appeared first on Awful Announcing.

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