Tony Petitti: Big Ten maintains 'deep commitment' to 24-team College Football Playoff

As other power conferences voice support for a 24-team College Football Playoff, the Big Ten remains staunchly in favor, commissioner Tony Petitti said Tuesday. He reaffirmed the league has a “deep commitment” to the expanded format.

Petitti spoke with reporters at the Big Ten’s spring meetings in California on Tuesday, where the expectation was the 24-team CFP would be a discussion. The conference was the first of the Power Four to support that level of expansion, while the Big 12 and ACC followed suit earlier this month at their respective meetings, On3’s Brett McMurphy reported.

The SEC remains an apparent holdout, though, as the conference gets ready to head to Destin for its spring meetings next week. Petitti said the two conferences are “working hard to figure out ways to get to a solution,” but the Big Ten has a “deep commitment to 24 [teams] and the access,” via ESPN’s Heather Dinich.

Conversations about the CFP’s future also include a potential 16-team field, which received support from the SEC should the bracket expand again. However, Petitti said the Big Ten has had “zero conversation” about going to 16 teams and, if it doesn’t expand to 24, the conference would favor staying at 12.

One of the big criticisms about a 24-team CFP is the impact it could have on the regular season. But Pettit said Tuesday he’s “in a very different place from those who think it hurts the regular season,” via Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger.

What other conferences say about CFP expansion

The Big Ten was the first to support a 24-team College Football Playoff last year. Recently, though, the ACC and Big 12 have also spoken in favor of that model, as has Notre Dame athletics director Pete Bevacqua.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told On3’s Brett McMurphy that 24 teams will provide more access, which is why the conference is in favor of it. The ACC’s Jim Phillips also said his conference’s “desire” is for 24 teams, as well.

But in the SEC, commissioner Greg Sankey stressed the need to “do the homework” about possibly expanding the CFP once again. He recalled concerns about the college football calendar when the field grew from four teams to 12, which he said has since settled down.

“I also know that when we tried to go from 4 to 12, I had commissioner colleagues whose stopping point was student-athletes’ health, well-being, the number of games. How (does it affect) the full calendar? And I said to the media last week, it’s ironic we’re not even talking about that. That’s a gentle reminder to all of us that just adding games has consequences,” Sankey said. “… We have to do the homework.

“And when we went from 4 to 12, I think one of the mistakes was we announced we’re going to 12 and then negotiated with the media. We should understand the media marketplace before we have an increase in, for example, the number of teams.”