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Big Ten Championship Game won’t be played if CFP expands to 24 teams, commissioner confirms
By David Wasson
Published:
One of the arguments against expanding the College Football Playoffs from beyond 12 teams to as many as 24 teams is that an already-crowded calendar will get too packed with games.
Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti opened up at least one weekend in his conference’s calendar Tuesday during Day 1 of Big Ten Media Days in Chicago should consensus rally around his preferred 24-team expansion: the weekend of the Big Ten Championship Game.
“We pretty much won’t be playing a conference championship game,” Pettiti said during a back-and-forth about possible CFP expansion with reporters.
Pettiti’s acknowledgement of spiking the Big Ten title game echoes what SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has inferred about the future of the SEC Championship Game should the CFP expand to 24 teams.
The Big Ten began playing a conference title game in 2011, and it is contested annually in Indianapolis. Ohio State has appeared in the Big Ten Championship Game a record seven times with a record five titles.
The game is typically held the first Saturday of December, although in 2020 it was played on the third Saturday of December due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indiana edged Ohio State 13-10 en route to its first outright Big Ten title since 1945 and a first-ever national championship.
An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.