With three regular-season weekends left in college football, the jockeying for CFP slots is becoming more competitive. Here’s a run down and what it could mean:
- Five Big Ten teams (Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, Michigan and USC) are “realistically alive” to make the CFP. The other 13 are “playing for bowl positioning, which isn’t as interesting as it used to be for fans.” OSU, Indiana and Oregon “give the Big Ten three teams that could be the last standing again, but the way this is playing out is likely to motivate” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti to “dig in even harder for expansion beyond 16 teams and automatic bids.”
- The SEC “heads down the stretch with seven teams alive, four practically in, and a real good chance to make it five.” When the new CFP rankings come out Tuesday, the SEC “should have seven of the top 14 teams.” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and member schools are in “no rush to sign up for any model -- no matter how big -- that could artificially limit the number of teams the SEC could put in the Playoff.”
- The situation “doesn’t look great for the ACC getting more than one bid.” It is a question whether the ACC could be “shut out altogether” if Duke wins the conference at 9-4 (THE ATHLETIC, 11/9).
The WASHINGTON POST looks at the expanded CFP’s effect of the regular season under the header, “Does a 12-team College Football Playoff take urgency out of November? Nope” (WASHINGTON POST, 11/9).
Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, who heads the CFP oversight committee, on Friday said that he is “not optimistic about the CFP expanding from 12 to 16 teams next season and that the SEC would prefer a model with no automatic qualifiers.” Keenum, appearing on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” said, “I’m not very optimistic that we’ll get to it, but we’ll keep working on it.” He added, “I’m not a big fan of automatic qualifiers. I think the best teams ought to play in our nation’s national tournament to determine who our national champion in college football is going to be. And not have automatic bids. And that’s the position of the Southeastern Conference presidents and chancellors, our commissioners and probably most of the conferences that are part of the CFP. We’re still negotiating” (THE ATHLETIC, 11/7).
