It appears expansion to the College Football Playoff could be placed on the back burner, at least for now.
As many have reported Friday, new Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff says the proposed 12-team playoff needs to be reconsidered now that Texas and Oklahoma have officially joined the SEC. Kliavkoff’s main point, it is hard for the CFP to expand its structure when there is so much uncertainty going on in college football right now.
“It’s certainly going to be readdressed,” Kliavkoff said to CBS Sports. “Remember that was a two-year process done by four people. The proposal is good, but it’s not done. We’ve mis-set fans’ expectations that it’s going to move on a very fast timeline.”
It is no surprise Kliavkoff feels this way. The Clemson Insider has spoken with several people around the ACC and Clemson at what the SEC’s new members mean to the CFP expansion and the future of college football.
There is thought the SEC could be thinking outside the box and maybe the bigger picture, especially when trying to determine what the future of college football might look like.
Could the SEC be positioning itself to begin a Super Conference? Maybe it does not want to share the CFP with the Group of 5 Conferences? And where does Clemson and the ACC fall in this discussion?
One source told TCI they don’t know if Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC necessarily signals, ‘I don’t want to play with the little guys.’
“Remember, SEC Commissioner [Greg] Sankey was part of the small group that worked on expanding the playoff, which inherently grants more access to the playoff, including the Group of 5 Conferences,” another source said. “To say this move means they do not want to play with the little guys. I don’t think that is necessarily fair.”
But where is college football going, at least with playoff discussions?
“It’s unfortunately likely to delay approval of a CFP expansion plan,” Kliavkoff told ESPN on Thursday. “I think there’s going to be realignment fallout we have to get through before we understand what format for an expanded CFP works best for all of college football.”
Alternatively, is this a start of Super Conferences?
“There are so many perspectives you can play out,” a high-ranking administrator from an ACC member institution told TCI. “Two or three Super Conferences on one end of the spectrum, and then on one end a very isolated conference shakeup. And will there be any dominos from it?”
The answer probably lies somewhere in between, as it normally does. On that spectrum, is a Super Conference in play?
Some said that is a possibility and we would be naïve to think that it is not.
“Is it likely? I think it is on one end of the spectrum. There are all kinds of other options in between,” a source said.
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