No era in college football history has witnessed more changes than this one. Interestingly, there are lots more to come. Regarding the CFP expansion, ESPN is proposing that college football adopt a playoff format similar to the NBA’s.

According to Ross Delenger of Yahoo Sports, ESPN, the rights holder of the College Football Playoff, has proposed a 16-team format to CFP leaders. The distinct feature of ESPN’s proposal is that the 16-team format would include four play-in games for the final four spots (seeds 13-16), as in the NBA.

The idea of having 16 teams is heavily supported by the SEC, as it has advocated for a conservative approach to the expansion until media value is clearer. However, the proposal from ESPN brings a unique idea that would induce more games and make more money.

As seen in the NBA, the top six teams in each conference automatically make the playoffs. Then, the seventh-place team faces the team at No. 8, while the No. 9 team faces the 10th-place team. The winner of the No. 7 vs No. 8 game automatically qualifies, while the loser faces the winner of the No. 9 vs No. 10 game. The winner of this final game gets the eighth and final playoff spot.

Applying it to college football, 12 teams would have automatic playoff qualification, while the next eight teams (No. 13-No. 20) would compete in four play-in games for the final four spots. The four winning teams from each game qualify for the playoffs, while the losing teams are disqualified.

While it is positive news that both conferences are agreeing on an expansion at the same time, the SEC and the Big Ten have completely different approaches to it, leading to a major disagreement.

As the SEC pushes for a 16-team format, the Big Ten, on the other hand, has been very aggressive with its expansion approach. The Big Ten wants a 24-team expansion format, which would eliminate conference championship games. It would also require that the playoffs begin earlier to create room for the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl.

The College Football Playoff was expanded from four to 12 teams just two seasons ago. And after using the 12-team format for just two years, there have been concrete talks of expanding it to 16 or 24 teams. The 12-team format has been an eye-opener: having more teams compete late in the season increases revenue and keeps more fan bases engaged into November, since a tough early-season loss no longer completely rules out a program’s playoff chances.

Big Ten has been opposed to the 16-team format

The Big Ten, which favors a 24-team format, has reportedly disagreed with ESPN’s play-in proposal. It contradicts their 24-team idea and is literally an edited form of the 16-team model the SEC prefers.

“I just don’t think it works economically,” Tony Petitti said in a meeting with reporters at the Big Ten spring meetings. “I don’t think it works scheduling-wise as well. I think it doesn’t create enough new inventory. And then the last piece, I don’t think it gets enough access.”

The Big Ten believes that both the 16-team and 24-team formats would eliminate conference championship games. And given that conference championship games across conferences are valued at around $200 million, Big Ten programs believe the 16-team model would not feature enough games to offset the loss of championship-game revenues.