By Stephen Leonard
LAS VEGAS—The theme was evident, and it was echoed in just about every coach’s opening remarks at Big Ten Media Days. Coaches practically stated in verbatim with B1G Commissioner Tony Petitti and almost as it was in unison—we play a nine-game conference schedule. It was clear the B1G as a conference has drawn a line in the sand and expects a nine-game conference schedule to be uniform across leagues. For years the SEC could champion the quality of their league, justifying one less conference game. Heck, the SEC even had a built-in quasi bye week in November with an FCS team or lower level team from the Group of 5. The SEC can no longer rest on the quality of their conference in comparison with the B1G and the evidence is clear.
Out-of-Conference Scheduling
Penn State head coach James Franklin made his opinions clear in response the question I asked him about out of conference scheduling.
However, nine-game conference schedules did not hurt the B1G the past two years. Could it have something to do with easy out-of-conference scheduling in combination with retaining talent. Both Michigan in 2023 and Ohio State in 2024 retained a boat load of talent from bolting to the NFL. Ohio State played zero quality teams in its 2024 nonconference schedule and Michigan zero in 2023. Penn State has adopted this approach for 2025 and Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti is obviously on board with the out-of-conference scheduling approach, and made headlines with his comments.
Has the B1G found it’s counter to the eight-game schedule with easy nonconference match ups? They now have the quality of conference argument when compared to the SEC wether you chose to believe it or not. You can’t argue with head to head wins.
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B1G Wins in Big Games
The B1G has back-to-back national champions in Michigan and Ohio State, but the advent of the College Football Playoff has provided even stronger evidence the B1G is just plain better. Maybe the argument could be made the B1G is top heavy but winning head-to-head in the playoff is, “it just means more” type of evidence. Washington head coach Jedd Fisch was quick to point out Michigan topped Alabama in the four-game playoff in 2023. Washington, who played their last game as a member of the Pac 12 before joining the the B1G, topped Texas now in the SEC. That is 2-0 if you are keeping count. Last year the 12-team playoff gave us even more evidence.
Ohio State knocked off Tennessee and Texas. That is 4-0 and just plain facts. Adding fuel to the fire, Georgia—the other SEC school to make the playoff last season—lost to Notre Dame. When your best teams loose the biggest games, you loose the right to argue your conference’s strength. It is simple, it’s not rocket science. The B1G has won the biggest game on the biggest stage and is reclaiming the right to superiority.
Lane Kiffin can take all the shots he wants at SEC media Days, but the truth hurts. Want to change the narrative? Win the games that just mean more.
What’s the Fix?
So what is the resolution? Should the SEC go to a nine-game conference schedule or maybe the B1G go back to eight games? I chose the latter with a 16-team playoff and play-in games for each conference instead of the conference championship week.
I’d argue one structural change to recent discussions for the conference play in games: a No. 1 vs. No. 2 with both teams getting into the CFP. Make it a play-in game with the No. 3 vs. No. 4. The loser having a chance at an at-large bid. The No. 5 vs. No. 6 would be for an unlikely at-large bid.
Pettiti’s plan was for a more traditional tournament style. With the advent of larger conferences, my plan allows for head-to-head match ups to determine conference rank accurately with a true champion. It will never be perfect but more quality college football games is good for business, but can we at least agree to have a hard stop expanding past 16 teams?
