The Big Ten commissioner’s plan to guarantee his conference four College Football Playoff spots is reportedly tied to a push to add playoff play-in games for his league’s TV partners.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti has “made assurances” to the league’s broadcast partners FOX, CBS and NBC and to campus administrators that the conference will add playoff play-in games, according to sources cited by Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated.
Per Forde, those assurances — which a spokeswoman for the Big Ten denied were made — are the reason why Petitti is advocating a College Football Playoff model that would guarantee four spots each for the Big Ten and SEC, allowing the conference to schedule three playoff play-in games for each of its three broadcast partners.
It would likely include the Big Ten Championship Game on FOX, plus play-in games between the conference’s third and sixth seeds and fourth and fifth seeds, with one on CBS and the other on NBC. All three networks would be guaranteed a game with playoff implications on the final weekend of the season.
Currently, the three networks rotate rights to the Big Ten Championship, meaning two of three are left out of the championship week mix. None of the three have rights to any playoff games.
Petitti’s plan — which would also guarantee two spots each for the Big Ten and ACC, one for the group of six champion, and three at large spots — is said to have little support.
The Big Ten is entering year three of its media rights deal with Fox, NBC and CBS, and per prior reporting by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, both Fox and NBC were not made aware of certain aspects of the deal when it was being negotiated in 2022. In particular, Thamel reported that the Big Ten would have to pay back Fox $40 million because previous conference commissioner Kevin Warren awarded NBC next year’s Big Ten Championship “without the full authority to do so.” The play-in plan would make the title game rotation moot.
