CFP board of managers anticipated to vote on 5+7 playoff format

The School Soccer Playoff board of managers is anticipated to vote Feb. 20 on a mannequin that would come with the 5 highest-ranked convention champions and the following seven highest-ranked groups within the 12-team playoff this fall — a format change that might lastly get the unanimous backing it wants if the Pac-12 agrees to it.

The Pac-12, which has dwindled to Washington State and Oregon State after drastic convention realignment, has been the lone holdout within the course of, asking for time to kind by its authorized points and focus on future CFP income with the board. Talking candidly to ESPN on Tuesday concerning the Pac-12’s position sooner or later format, Washington State president Kirk Schulz, who represents the convention on the board, mentioned, “The expectation is to carry a vote.”

“I consider there is a sense of, ‘We’re listening to you guys out such as you requested for, the authorized stuff has been largely settled within the Pac-12 Convention. It is time to transfer ahead,'” mentioned Schulz, who spoke favorably of the 5+7 mannequin however cautioned to not make any assumptions.

Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, the chair of the CFP’s board of managers, instructed ESPN he anticipates “we’ll have this problem resolved a method or one other.”

“I feel it is a forgone conclusion from folks in your occupation, and the place I sit and all throughout the faculty soccer panorama that there is an anticipation we’ll have the 5+7,” he mentioned. “Just some months from now we’ll be taking part in the playoff. Everybody must know what the format is. I hope we as a board can come to a decision on this problem, for positive.”

The 5+7 mannequin, which the commissioners proposed in response to the sweeping realignment that left school athletics with 4 “energy” conferences, was offered to the presidents and chancellors in November for his or her approval. It was mentioned once more at their annual assembly earlier than the nationwide championship recreation in Houston. On the time, Schulz requested the board to delay any vote on future soccer codecs till the Pac-12 was sure about “what it needed to ask for shifting ahead.”

Subsequent Tuesday’s digital assembly will give Schulz a possibility to formally current the league’s requested income distribution within the subsequent CFP contract. For the following two years, the rest of the CFP’s present 12-year contract, Washington State and Oregon State will every proceed to obtain the complete Energy 5 income distribution, which is $5-6 million per faculty. They’re asking to proceed to obtain that quantity within the subsequent CFP contract, not understanding what their convention affiliation will probably be.

“We all know we are going to get suggestions,” Schulz mentioned, “and I additionally anticipate at that assembly there will probably be a vote referred to as as a separate merchandise on the playoff format and us and Oregon State at the moment may have come to consensus on what our place will probably be, and we’ll be able to vote at the moment.”

Whereas Schulz declined to say how the league may vote, he mentioned he absolutely understands that the 5+7 mannequin will profit Washington State and Oregon State greater than the preliminary 6+6 mannequin as a result of neither faculty can qualify for an automated bid as a convention champion in every of the following two seasons. The Pac-12 and Mountain West have agreed to a brief scheduling partnership wherein Oregon State and Washington State will play not less than six MWC opponents in 2024.

“For our two faculties within the Pac-12 because it’s at the moment configured, there isn’t a query that five-seven, with seven at-larges, is healthier than six at-larges,” Schulz mentioned. “That is a part of the dialogue we’re having throughout the convention footprint — or the 2 faculties — is that very level. There is not any query our soccer coaches are going to need to compete for a type of seven slots, and 7 goes to be higher than six.”

Schulz mentioned he views the income distribution as a separate dialog from the 5+7 mannequin, and he isn’t making an attempt to make use of one to affect the opposite.

“We have to be a superb colleague within the school soccer world,” he mentioned. “We requested for the chance to have a listening to on [revenue distribution], that was granted. Now we have to be actually cautious about saying, ‘For those who do not give us precisely what we have requested for, we will maintain up another issues.’ The choice must be one made by us and Oregon State and we’re nonetheless going by that decision-making course of main as much as that assembly subsequent week. There is not any assumption to be made that we’ve to get X to get Y, both approach.”

In keeping with the Pac-12’s proposal, which Schulz shared with ESPN, Oregon State and Washington State are asking for “a distribution share and voting rights equal to the bottom per faculty professional rata share of the ACC, Huge 10, Huge 12, or SEC convention’s distribution, no matter how these 4 conferences truly distribute CFP distributions to their members.”

The request can be thought-about “null and void if the Pac-12 dissolves, WSU and OSU be part of one of many aforementioned conferences, or the appropriate is waived.”

“We have been in a recreation of musical chairs and the music stopped and we had two faculties standing,” Schulz mentioned. “We have invested and been thought-about autonomy 5 faculty and convention for many years. We simply do not assume that due to the musical chairs that the 2 remaining faculties within the Pac-12 must be penalized.”

Keenum mentioned not one of the conferences know but what the income distribution will probably be within the subsequent contract.

“We have to be a superb colleague within the school soccer world. We requested for the chance to have a listening to on [revenue distribution], that was granted. Now we have to be actually cautious about saying, ‘For those who do not give us precisely what we have requested for, we’re gonna maintain up another issues.’ The choice must be one made by us and Oregon State and we’re nonetheless going by that decision-making course of main as much as that assembly subsequent week. There is not any assumption to be made that we’ve to get X to get Y, both approach.”

Washington State president Kirk Schulz

“None of us do,” he mentioned. “There’s plenty of work that is going to must entail on behalf of our commissioners and others to deliver some suggestions to the board. They don’t seem to be there. We’re not there. I hear what he is saying, however I do not know you commit to a faculty.”

Presidents and chancellors representing every of the ten FBS conferences and Notre Dame have the final word authority over the playoff. Keenum instructed reporters final month he was assured the 5+7 mannequin would finally be authorised, however Schulz mentioned none of his friends put any undue strain on him.

“No one’s referred to as me and angrily or something like that,” Schulz mentioned. “I feel I admire the truth that folks mentioned, ‘OK, we perceive you guys have been by hell for the final six months on all the things. Take your time to be prepared, however this could’t final for months.’ And so I admire that.”

One choice the Pac-12 is contemplating for its future is a reverse merger with the MWC, which might add all the groups from that league into the Pac-12 with none exit price. Schulz mentioned if that have been to occur, he is undecided how the CFP would view the league, which might basically be a Group of 5 convention with a Energy 5 label.

“That might be an fascinating debate on the place an entity like that may exist within the hierarchy,” he mentioned. “Clearly, we might argue that it ought to nonetheless be thought-about an autonomy 5 convention. I can see different folks saying it shouldn’t be thought-about that. That is a debate for a distinct day that can actually be vigorous and if that involves transpire an terrible lot of contentious dialogue.”

Schulz mentioned the hole between the Huge Ten, SEC and everybody else “is just getting wider,” however that additionally makes these two conferences finest positioned to “actually affect decision-making.”

The Huge Ten and SEC lately partnered to kind an advisory group, and their commissioners, Tony Petitti and Greg Sankey, have been carefully aligned on weighty points impacting the way forward for collegiate athletics.

“We’d like actually good, sturdy collaborative management,” Schulz mentioned. “I am in all probability glass extra half full on this than I’m half empty. There’s at all times some worry if I am not in that room, am I being not noted — by anyone, not simply me or the Pac-12 — however is someone else going to be making choices which have a big effect on me? However I feel proper now we’d like these two conferences to roll up their sleeves and I will assume they’ll need to work with everyone else. I will benefit from the doubt now. Let’s examine what these two conferences working collectively provide you with.”