College Football Playoff format - SEC debate, chances of lost bids and more - ESPN

Leave it to college football to take the silliest, most circuitous possible route to the easiest, most logical answer.

Though nothing's official and things could take further silly turns, a read of recent tea leaves gives the impression that those in charge of how the College Football Playoff will look in 2026 and beyond are homing in on a straightforward, 16-team tournament with five guaranteed spots for conference champions and 11 at-large bids. After months of debates about different bracket structures and conferences getting multiple automatic bids, the conversation seems to have returned to a clean and easy bracket.

We're going to pretend this means people are listening to me. When I wrote about this debate in March, I recommended skipping expansion to 14 teams and moving to 16, and I mocked the idea of multiple autobids. Granted, I also recommended putting six conference champions in the field and putting quarterfinal games in home stadiums, not just first-round games. I won't hold my breath on those ideas (especially the former), but that's still a pretty good batting average.

After a week of posturing from power conference leaders, let's keep the conversation going. Here are some thoughts about what we've learned this week and the debates still to come

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talked a lot this week. He went on «The Paul Finebaum Show.» He talked about a scheduling partnership with the Big Ten. He increased the fines for field rushing. He talked about which playoff games should or will be on home campuses. He talked about how long this formatting process takes. He scoffed at being told to serve the good of the game. And he spent a long time telling everyone how hard the SEC's schedules are:

On Thursday