Shehan Jeyarajah

Yeah, I think that, first of all, I mean, for this upcoming season, it's very unlikely.

And the other thing, too, is that to even make a change for next year, that decision would have to be made by December 1st.

And right now, I mean, the reality is, right, there are two giant stakeholders who will make that decision, one the Big Ten, one the SEC, and the SEC is holding out.

And

If they don't decide to move to 24, like, they're happy to stay at 12.

Their preferred number is still 16.

They would like it to expand just a little bit.

But, you know, ultimately, the SEC really does hold essentially a veto in this.

And so, you know, like you said, there's been a lot of momentum to get to 24.

I think that a lot of the other stakeholders are kind of rallying around that number.

But until the SEC decides that they're open to it, it doesn't look like it's going to change soon.

Yeah, I mean, I think that they just feel like 24 is too big is just a big part of it.

Right.

And I think that there's also a little bit of a proxy war going on as well between not just the Big Ten and SEC, but also ESPN and Fox, who are the two primary stakeholders, of course, in the television rights market.

Right now, at 12, ESPN owns all of the rights to the college football playoffs.

16, they would still probably own at least the vast majority.

One of the reasons that Fox especially wants to go to 24 is because they want to be able to potentially bid on those remaining games.

And, you know, there might be some brinksmanship from that perspective of ESPN wanting to hold off Fox and getting to kind of still own the college football playoff the way that they have for the first 12 years of it.

So, you know, there's a lot of different dynamics, you know, again, but at the same time, you know, the American Football Coaches Association, the trade organization that

That represents the will of the coaches.