Dear SEC presidents: You're about to ruin college football for a payday | Opinion

They’re in these secret meetings and they're debating change and it’s obviously all about money.

But has anyone — I mean, anyone — among the 16 presidents and chancellors of the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey actually looked at what they’re about to do with college football’s postseason?

The now inevitable move from 12 to 24 teams in the College Football Playoff is a straight tradeoff of good product for bad — for more cash.

And they're about to ruin college football as we know it.

It's not that difficult to see what the dash for cash and race to 24 will do to a sport that's second only to the NFL in popularity. It's basic market analysis.

A 24-team format eliminates conference championship games, and adds a first round of games between teams ranked No. 9-24. So instead of Georgia vs. Alabama, Indiana vs. Ohio State, Texas Tech vs. BYU and Duke vs. Virginia on Championship Week in 2025, these are your first round games in a 24-team format using last year’s final CFP rankings:

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JMU at Alabama, Iowa at Miami, Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, Houston at BYU, Tulane at Texas, Virginia at Vanderbilt, Michigan at Utah and Arizona at USC.

I’m gonna puke.

Look, I blame the SEC presidents because until this 30-day exclusive negotiating window opened with ESPN, the SEC showed a modicum of hesitation amid a sea of conferences and Notre Dame mindlessly racing toward the playoff ATM.

Shove that debit card in there, and let it rain, baby. More cash, more reckless spending on — take your pick — bad coaches, bad contracts, bad players and opulent facilities.

The die was cast for this move when the Protect College Sports Act doubled the salary cap to $45 million. Where do you think universities are going to find an extra $22-23 million — or more, if Congress doesn’t sign off and the current funny money system continues to feed on itself?

The playoff ATM, of course.

Which brings us to this “exclusive” negotiating window with ESPN. An absolute joke of a sham of an excuse at due diligence.

Why in the world would any fiscally prudent caretaker of tens of billions of dollars agree to a new format that expands the playoff field to 24 teams — and not see what the free market will bear?

These esteemed presidents and chancellors of high academia aren’t that dumb. The “exclusive” window will come and go (next Thursday), and the product will go to market — and Fox Sports, whose college football coverage currently ends with the Big Ten championship game, will pay out the wazoo to get in on the action.

And for what? Virginia at Vanderbilt. Houston at BYU. Tulane at Texas.

We can’t be this shortsighted. We can’t sit here and truly believe, in our heart of hearts, that the college football regular season — the one guaranteed winner that has endured all change — won’t be severely impacted by a 24-team playoff.

In 2024, the first round games would’ve included UNLV at Boise State, Colorado at SMU, Army at Alabama, and do I really need to continue?

Now here’s where it potentially gets absolutely diabolical.

The same CFP selection committee that values wins above all else, that for some reason can’t figure out the value in strength of schedule, will suddenly figure out the difference between playing in the SEC and Big Ten ― and playing in any other conference.

So the first round will go from Virginia vs. Vanderbilt, to the four-loss masterpieces of Minnesota vs. Vanderbilt and Iowa vs. South Carolina.

Riveting.

The SEC’s television ratings currently dwarf the Big Ten’s one month into this season, the critical factor in any future media rights deal. As sexy as three straight national titles is for the Big Ten, nothing moves the television needle like the SEC.

So why is the SEC even at the table? Why be party to something that could permanently change the sport — while allowing the rest of college football to feed off your television might in a 24-team postseason?

College football has never been more popular, never more bulletproof. This is on the SEC’s presidents and chancellors.

Expand the playoff, and tear down the product.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dear SEC presidents: You're about to ruin college football for a payday | Opinion