After ACC and others throw support behind 24-team CFP, the ball is now in the SEC's court

Are an additional 12 games — mostly first-round games pitting three- and four-loss teams — worth that much?

In his news conference Wednesday after annual ACC spring meetings, Phillips announced what’s been known for a few weeks: His athletic directors and coaches want a 24-team playoff. The rationale is two-fold. The field should be expanded to (1) include bubble teams that are deserving to compete in a national championship, and (2) the access should expand to meet the increased investment from schools into their football rosters/programs.

“When you’re leaving national championship-contending teams out of the playoff, you don’t have the right number,” Phillips said. “We lived through it, we suffered through it with Florida State, when the field was four.”

One thing Phillips revealed — and something reported in this story from Yahoo Sports last month — is that ESPN, the CFP’s sole media partner, is against any expansion beyond 16 teams.

In a way, it was a jarring public revelation from a sitting conference commissioner.

ESPN’s influence and role in the playoff cannot be overstated. It is the funding mechanism. The network pays $1.3 billion annually as part of an agreement to televise the playoff through 2031 (though ESPN has sublicensed nearly half of the remaining games to TNT, something probably not appreciated by CFP decision-makers).

Two years ago, during a bidding process for the new six-year television contract, ESPN emerged as the top bidder, and it wasn’t particularly close, those with knowledge say.

In fact, as part of the package, ESPN — the SEC’s sole media partner — holds ownership over the playoff as long as the field doesn’t expand beyond 14 teams, perhaps a reason the media company doesn’t want a significantly expanded postseason.

On the other side is Fox, whose CEO, Eric Shanks, has been a public proponent of a 24-team field. The Big Ten’s primary media partner is Fox.

But this playoff push goes beyond media executives and TV partners.

Those here this week stressed a need, in general, for more access given football roster values that are soaring well over $30 million. And most coaches are in favor of eliminating conference championship games that have been devalued in the 12-team postseason (after all, the title game has become only another difficult conference game before a grueling playoff begins).

During a joint meeting of athletic directors and head football coaches on Wednesday, Phillips called on each school representative to reveal their position — 16 or 24? And though many within the room described a “consensus” and “unanimity” among the group, Miami coach Mario Cristobal, in a podcast interview this week, revealed another view: “I'm not for the 24-team thing. That's a lot. Why play a regular season then? And I'm certainly not for automatic bids.”

There are repercussions — maybe adverse consequences — to growing the field by so many teams. In the most current proposal under discussion, a 24-team field would be determined through the CFP selection committee’s rankings (plus one Group of Six automatic bid if it is outside the poll). The top eight seeds would receive a bye into a second round that, like the first round, would be played at the better seed’s campus. Seeds No. 9-24 would meet one another in the opening weekend.

One of the consequences surrounds the future of those bowls that are not tethered to the CFP’s six-bowl rotation to host a quarterfinal and semifinal.

What happens to the Gator Bowl, the Pop-Tarts Bowl, Alamo, Houston, etc?

“We have to understand what this does,” Phillips said when asked directly about the bowl impact. “There’s been no vote on this thing. We asked the CFP, with their TV consultant, to run 16 and 24. We don’t have all the information. It may come back and say, ‘Boy that 16 may look better!’”

The calendar is tricky too and so is the exclusive four-hour window that Army-Navy commands. That game almost certainly has to move up in a 24-team playoff.

None of this can happen without the SEC’s support, of course. League coaches, athletic directors and presidents gather for their own annual conference meetings May 26-28 near Destin, Florida. Big Ten meetings unfold next week near Los Angeles and Big 12 is the last group to meet at the end of the month.

This week, in ACC Land, the league publicly swung its support behind 24. So did Notre Dame’s athletic director, Pete Bevacqua, a member of the CFP governance committee, and the Big 12 too.

The ball’s in the SEC’s court.