By CADE KENNEDY, Sports Editor
College football season has come to an end, but the debate about the future of the sport still rages on.
Over the past few months, I kept seeing article after article about how the College Football Playoff might expand to 12 teams. The idea sounds great, until I saw that all 10 conference commissioners must agree on the plan.
If the previous offseason filled with conference realignment and scheduling alliances taught me anything, it was that a unanimous decision currently is unlikely.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has said the playoff needs to be kept at four teams for now, which makes sense as the conference is usually represented in the playoff.
The Pacific-12 Conference is fine with any of the solutions, and has stated that they will vote on anything. I think that the Pacific-12 needs to start fighting for a 12-team playoff.
The Big 12 and several smaller conferences are fighting for a 12-team playoff, which makes complete sense. With Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 in a few years, the conference is going to need stability.
However, there are two conferences that have more influence than every other one combined: the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference.
These two conferences have completely different ideas for where the sport should go.
The main difference is that the Southeastern Conference wants either 4 or 12 teams, while the Big Ten wants either eight or 12. When it comes to 12 teams, both sides still disagree on which conference champions should be in.
I think that the Southeastern Conference model is the best model for the future. With a 12-team playoff, there is more emphasis on winning your conference, as every conference champion would have an opportunity to reach the playoffs.
The regular season would be exciting as well, as teams would still be fighting to make the playoffs instead of being locked out.