"What would that viewership look like?": Urban Meyer points to dark turn college realignment could take lead by SEC and Big Ten

The College Football Playoff format for 2026 will potentially see changes after criticism of the 12-team format in 2024. One idea floating around is a 14-team CFP, which would consist of guaranteed bids for conferences, with the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten receiving considerably more than the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12.

With the realignment, the smaller conferences might receive lesser attention and revenue compared to the bigger conferences like the SEC. In light of this, on Wednesday’s episode of “The Triple Option,” host Rob Stone suggested the ACC and Big 12 should schedule more games against the SEC and Big Ten to help with their visibility and economy.

To this, national championship-winning coach Urban Meyer replied by saying that there indeed is a financial incentive for teams to keep climbing the ranks.

“OK, let’s throw this on the table,” Meyer said (Timestamp: 12:50). “I want to say it was 4 million dollars and then 6 million. That was the amount of money that teams earned as they moved up the ranks. … What keeps those two conferences from saying, ‘Let's go play a Big 10 versus SEC.’ Tell me what that viewership would look like?”

When Stone agreed that the viewership would be “great” but questioned whether it would be good for college football, Urban Meyer replied:

“No, Ohio State was in debt last year after winning a national championship. … That's the problem with when you say, 'Let’s make this like the NFL where everybody’s treated the same.'

"There's a 0.0000 chance of that ever happening in college football, because college football is the financial resources for these universities, and you know who they look out for right? SEC looks out for SEC.”

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Urban Meyer also on board with realignment

Despite the turn that the proposed format could take, Urban Meyer also showed hope for the realignment. For instance, he suggested that the automatic bids would eliminate the need for a selection committee, which as "human beings" could be prone to making mistakes.

“This now eliminates the selection committee; they are no longer a selection committee,” Urban Meyer said (Timestamp: 3:00). “It’s not selection. It’s access.”

The guaranteed bids would see the SEC and Big Ten receive four spots. Meanwhile, the ACC and Big 12 would each get two, and one spot would go to the highest-ranked Group of Five team. The final spot would be given to another at-large team.