CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The Southeast Conference’s championship football game, played in Atlanta last year, was lucrative. It was the sixth most watched sports broadcast in 2025. Between tickets, licensing agreements, and broadcast rights, it made $100-million for its members, split between schools like Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.
Starting next year, the game will no longer be played.
What bigger, better thing could come down the pike to give up such a cash jackpot?
A 24-team college football playoff, which was announced yesterday. It’s a tail-wags-the-dog situation. Football’s two biggest conferences, the SEC and the Big Ten, demanded it. Those leagues get reserved spots in the playoffs for their champions. And at 24 teams, many others from their leagues will share in the games and in the money.
Here is the easiest prediction I will make all day. Mark my words – 24 teams will not be enough. Soon, perhaps a few years down the road, college football will move to a 48-team format, the same as college basketball for many years. Even college basketball has expanded. This year there will be 68 teams participating.
College athletics is already creating events that are beyond the financial means of broadcasters to pay for. The basketball tournament, at $1-billion a season, has to be split between two networks. The college football playoffs, will likely be financed by three or four broadcast partners. ESPN dreams of swallowing the whole thing if they can finance the $1.8-billion price tag.
Just how ludicrous is this? Under the new football model, almost every team ranked in the top 20 would get in. Even teams like the Badgers, who are not good this year. Two weeks ago, they were ranked 25th in the nation – on the cusp of being in the newly reimagined football playoffs. Then they laid an egg against Iowa. C’mon Badgers – beat Maryland and Purdue – and you too might be in the running for college football’s big bucks.
Chris Conley
Comments