I hereby disavow my headline!
Not that it isn’t the truth, it is. However, does going LARGE with out-of-conference (OOC) scheduling make sense when we have a Playoff format that’s senseless, coupled with a Playoff Committee that, unlike its college basketball counterpart when ranking teams, prefers whimsey over viable, disclosed to the public, metrics.
Yes, the Playoff Committee in 2024-25 was handed a terrible playoff format. A format designed for the five Power 5 Conferences before the Pac-12 imploded. A format that most likely will not change until 2026-27, which just about makes Mr. FishDuck’s head explode. He took a short break from his fun studying FanDuel and NCAAF news, to sputter with me about the OOC schedules of the two Super-Conferences.
The Committee was charged with force-ranking four of the five highest-seeded conference champions into the top 4-seeded Playoff teams, regardless of where a team was ranked in the Committee’s final ranking. However, this did not require the Committee to rank a G5 team, Boise State No. 9, and Power-4 Big 12 Champ Arizona State 12th, resulting in 3rd seed Boise playing Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, and 4th seed ASU having to travel to Atlanta to play Texas in the Peach Bowl.
The Sun Devils came oh-so-close to defeating Texas, but would the game being played in ‘Phoenix’ have made a difference?
The ultimate Playoff champion, a 2-loss, and 4th place finisher in the Big Ten, Ohio State, was seeded 8th instead of 6th as ranked by the Committee. If teams were ranked as seeded and Oregon defeats Boise State in the Rose Bowl, that’s an additional $8 million for the B1G. Oregon defeats Indiana in the Grand Daddy, instead of the Hoosiers losing at Notre Dame, and that’s an extra $4 million for the B1G.
Water over the Dam. But, damn, that’s an expensive Dam.
There is a history with these two conferences having epic games.(Screenshot from ABC-ESPN Video)
If the B1G and SEC proposed Playoff format for 2026-27 is approved, a field of 14 or 16 teams with four teams from the B1G and the SEC, as determined by each conference, in the Playoff field, then play a Playoff-contending team in at least one OOC game. If this is the format, bring on a B1G versus SEC challenge and the inventory that will bring in premium broadcast dollars.
With the above as a predicate, hats off to the SEC for playing a more difficult OOC schedule in 2025-26 than the B1G. Every SEC team, except Ole Miss, will play nine Power 4 opponents in 2025; Florida, with games against Miami and FSU, and Alabama, with games against FSU and Wisconsin, will play ten.
Ole Miss is the only SEC team that will play four G6 teams, but Washington State, which replaced a Wake Forest team that cancelled out, is arguably a ‘Power 5’ opponent in 2025. Ole Miss and USC mutually agreed to cancel what would have been a season-opening game in Los Angeles.
If Washington State is not a Power 5 opponent, then Washington, along with Northwestern, Rutgers, Indiana, Maryland, and Penn State, play no Power conference opponent OOC in 2025. That’s one-third of the B1G conference. Yes, the B1G plays one more regular-season game than the SEC; however, few of the preseason B1G 2025 strength-of-schedule rankings equal or exceed the SEC strength-of-schedule rankings.
B1G…Your OOC Schedule penalty is NO SOUP for one year! (Screenshot from TBS Video)
Using Athlon Sports 2025 College Football Preseason Rankings 1-136, I ranked the B1G and the SEC OOC schedules by the highest-ranked opponent a team will face in 2025. Giving Washington State its proper place as a G6 team, in 2025, the 16-team SEC will play 17 Power 4 teams OOC. What about the 18-team B1G? Much less at only 13 Power 4 teams in their OOC schedule.
In 2025, the B1G and the SEC matchup in three OOC games: No. 1 Texas at No. 2 Ohio State; No. 16 Michigan at No. 28 Oklahoma, and No. 49 Wisconsin at No. 9 Alabama. At least 4 million viewers will tune into each one of these games. The Longhorns at the Buckeyes game, expected to be Lee Corso’s final appearance on College GameDay, is expected to draw north of 12 million viewers.
My back-of-the-envelope calculation (team-by-team calculation available upon request) with the lower number reflecting the more difficult schedules –
B1G – 954 or a 53.00 ranking on average, for each of the 18 teams.
SEC – 395 or a 24.68 ranking on average for each of the 16 teams.
Again, unless and until we see the Power 2 conferences assured of our teams each in the Playoff field, with nine regular season conference games, I won’t criticize the B1G playing small ball OOC.
But, hats off to the SEC for bringing in a 2025 Top 25 average for its toughest OOC games.
Let’s get the proposed revised Playoff format, and a B1G versus SEC challenge on!
Jon Joseph
Aiken, South Carolina
Top Photo From Crimson Tide Photos, Courtesy of UA Athletics
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Jon Joseph grew up in Boston, Massachusetts but has been blessed to have lived long enough in the west to have exorcised all east coast bias. He played football in college and has passionately followed the game for seven decades. A retired corporate attorney Jon has lectured across the country and published numerous articles on banking and gaming law. Now a resident of Aiken South Carolina, Jon follows college football across the nation with a focus on the Conference of Champions and the Ducks.