If Alabama Football and three other SEC teams make the 2025-26 College Football Playoff field, three of the teams will be at-large teams. It is looking likely that in the following Playoff season and beyond, the SEC and the Big Ten will be allocated four guaranteed slots. That is the recent news reported by Yahoo's Ross Dellenger.
Dellenger had much more to report after the Big Four Commissioners met this week. Nothing is a done deal yet, but according to Dellenger, there is "growing support" for the Big Two (SEC and Big Ten) to get what they want: four guaranteed spots for each conference every season. The 'want' is close to being a demand, to which all the other conferences have little choice but to accept.
To make the four slots for the Big Two more palatable, the field would expand to 16 teams. It would break down as SEC (4), Big Ten (4), Big 12 (2), ACC (2), Group of Six (1), and three at-large slots. Nothing would prevent the SEC or the Big Ten from having more than four slots in some seasons. Should the field expand to 14 teams, there would be only one at-large slot.
Once considered more novelty than possibility, the format would include play-in games for the Big Two, with a post-season 3rd place vs 6th place and 4th place vs. 5th place.
Alabama Football to play Nine SEC Regular Season Games
The changes are tied to the growing probability that the SEC will go to nine conference games. ESPN has proposed an ante-up payment of an additional $50-$80M annually for the league to have a nine-game regular season. Greg Sankey is reported to be in favor of the change.
Not every SEC program will favor adding a ninth conference game. Traditionally weaker programs will worry about the added conference game making it harder for their teams to become bowl-eligible. Head coaches at Vanderbilt, Mississippi State (and possibly Auburn) might see the additional game as a threat to their job security. It is expected that such concerns will not prevent the change from being approved.