Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti isn’t mincing words when it comes to College Football Playoff expansion

For the first time, the Big Ten hosted its football media days in Las Vegas inside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The event, traditionally held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, moved west because of a scheduling conflict.

The Big Ten has claimed back-to-back College Football Playoff national championships, and Tony Petitti, the Haverford College alumnus who is entering his third season as commissioner, opened media days on Tuesday by recognizing the success of its expanded conference after adding Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and Southern California last summer.

“Last year, the four most viewed college football games of the season featured Big Ten teams, as did seven of the top 10 and 12 of the top 20,” Petitti said in his opening statement. “It’s clear Big Ten football has never been deeper or stronger.”

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The conversation quickly shifted to the future of the CFP. The Big Ten had four teams in the CFP last year: Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, and Indiana.

Discussions on expanding the 12-team college playoffs to 16 teams have been put on pause, and Petitti made clear that “formats that increase the discretion and role of the CFP selection committee will have a difficult time getting support from the Big Ten.”

“A specific decision on format was not reached. Instead, it was agreed that the Big Ten and SEC would control changes to the CFP format and the selection committee process after considering feedback from the membership,” Petitti said. “With respect to format, the Big Ten has been consistent and has a strong preference for a playoff system that allocates spots based on conference standings and the results of playing games. We want to better connect the regular season and the postseason.

“We want more conference games to matter in November. Also, the playoff format should not function as a disincentive to schedule tough nonconference games.”

In a 30-minute conversation earlier this month with Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt, Petitti defended his proposal for the Big Ten and SEC to have four automatic bids in a 16-team playoff that would “reduce the role of the committee” and would give the ACC and Big 12 two automatic qualifiers. The remaining spots would be three at-large bids and the highest-ranked non-Power Four conference champion.

The SEC, Big 12, and ACC have proposed a five-plus-11 format, with five conference champions (Power Four champions and the highest-ranked Group of Six conference champion) and 11 at-large bids. However, Petitti has been outspoken about not wanting the selection committee to have more opportunities to decide who gets into future playoffs.

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“I think there’s been a lot of concern about how those decisions are made,” Petitti said. “I focus on that piece. How are we differentiating from teams that don’t have head-to-head play, teams that don’t play common schedules across leagues that do different things? I think that’s a really hard, tall order. We’re obviously not in the same place on these [expansion] discussions. I think there [are] lots of ideas, and the goal would be to bring people back together, have a conversation, what we think, what we think works, and kind of go from there.”

The CFP has until Dec. 1 to notify ABC/ESPN, its television rightsholders, on whether the 2026-27 college football season will expand to a 16-team playoff.

Before Big Ten media days began, the conference released its annual preseason team. Three Penn State players were honored: quarterback Drew Allar, running back Nicholas Singleton, and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton.

Allar, who finished last season with 3,327 yards and 24 touchdowns in 16 starts, was one of two quarterbacks named to the 16-member preseason list, joining Illinois’ Luke Altmeyer.

Singleton finished with a career-best 1,099 rushing yards and 17 total touchdowns (12 rushing, five receiving) last season, while Dennis-Sutton finished with 42 tackles (13 for loss), 8½ sacks, and one interception. Penn State tied Ohio State with the most preseason nominees with three each.

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Ohio State, the defending national champions, had both of its coordinators leave for other jobs. Jim Knowles, who grew up in North Philadelphia, took the Penn State defensive coordinator job after three seasons leading the Buckeyes’ defense, while offensive coordinator Chip Kelly took a job with Las Vegas Raiders in the same role.

At his podium session on Tuesday, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day talked about “keeping continuity” on both sides of the ball, especially with former Eagles senior defensive assistant turned late-season defensive coordinator Matt Patricia taking the reins of the Buckeyes’ defense.

“We want to run the [same] Ohio State defense, and Matt was willing to embrace that,” Day said. “Now, Matt has his own background and things that he likes, and I think one of the things he does a great job of is putting guys in situations and being successful when you look at what he did with the Patriots in his background. … I think Matt’s done a great job of building relationships already with the current players. When you ask them about that, and you ask the recruits about Matt, they just have glowing responses about who he is, the way he connects his personality.”

Ohio State will open its season against Texas on Aug. 31 (noon, Fox29) and will host Knowles and Penn State on Nov. 1, in a game that could have huge implications in the Big Ten race.