What\u2019s best for the sport as a whole is disconnected from what\u2019s best for roughly 68 individual fiefdoms, and the millionaire athletic directors and coaches leading them. They want easy, even if easy undermines the best parts of college football.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cool thing about our sport is it has always been a challenge to get into the playoffs,\u201d Elko said. \u201cEvery year there are good teams, whether it was four [from 2014 to \u201923], whether it\u2019s 12, there are good football teams who don\u2019t make it. I was in the four era at No. 5 [as defensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 2020] with a really good football team that didn\u2019t get in. Last year there were some really good teams that didn\u2019t get in. That\u2019s O.K. We don\u2019t have to find a number that lets everybody get in, because you just saw it with basketball, right? All of a sudden now 68 isn\u2019t enough because there\u2019s still some teams getting left out so we\u2019ve got to go to [76]. It\u2019s O.K. to make it hard to get into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are several coaches\u2014and perhaps even more athletic directors\u2014here who disagree with Elko. They\u2019d prefer the Big Ten Easy Button Playoff, with 24 teams. The argument goes that the percentage of FBS teams making the playoff at 12 is too small and out of line with other sports, both professional and college.<\/p>\n
But college football doesn\u2019t need to be like every other sport. It has the best regular season of them all, and the regular season would be adversely affected by an expanded playoff that dilutes the impact of many games while adding artificial importance to other, slightly-above-average teams that are trying to earn a participation trophy, as Elko alluded to.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us are answering for the good of the sport,\u201d Elko said. \u201cWe\u2019re answering for the good of ourselves. The different conferences want what they want because it\u2019s the best for them. We\u2019ve got to figure out some type of unified leadership over college football. We\u2019re a billion-dollar industry that\u2019s getting governed in a lot of different separate pockets, not with one unified leadership. Until that happens, I don\u2019t know how we solve this.<\/p>\n
\u201cHas there ever been an industry like this in the world? In the history of the world? Probably not.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Elko and everyone else is waiting for a theoretical CEO to appear and decree some level of uniform leadership, college sports will continue careening along a chaotic path. The federal government legislative Hail Mary continues to not work, despite years of trying. Player movement and compensation remain unconfined. New rules are treated with the same disdain as the old rules\u2014maybe more, since they are largely unenforced.<\/p>\n
College sports has a rich, colorful, occasionally tawdry history of cheating. But it\u2019s never seen anything like the current climate.<\/p>\n
Elko was asked whether his colleagues would actually abide by the rules, for the good of the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there were rules that had consequences,\u201d he said. \u201cLike you look at the NFL as a model, why do coaches not try to get an edge in the NFL? Because the rules are enforced, right? The rules are enforced so nobody can gain a competitive edge by you circumventing the [salary] cap or doing different things in free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so the problem with college sports is who\u2019s enforcing the rules? And so if there are rules that nobody\u2019s enforcing \u2026 then that just creates this waterfall of people trying to skirt things. And so I think that\u2019s really more like, what are the rules? Are they being enforced? If so, cool. That\u2019d be awesome. I think most of my colleagues would agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe, maybe not. Several other SEC coaches pointed out the friendly local judge strategy of flouting NCAA rules. Among SEC schools, Tennessee and Alabama athletes have gone that route, with varying success. Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby is headed to court in Lubbock next month in search of an injunction that could get him past NCAA gambling violations and on the field for the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n
Next up, in all likelihood: LSU looking for a friendly local judge who will put basketball player RJ Luis Jr. in uniform for the 2026\u201327 season. Will Wade, longstanding exemplar of NCAA compliance virtue, landed Luis<\/a> after he went undrafted in 2025 but signed multiple two-way contracts with NBA franchises last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n This absurd flouting of the rules comes just months after Alabama\u2019s similarly brazen move to play former big man Charles Bediako<\/a> was terminated in court in Tuscaloosa. Louisiana might offer a more friendly home court advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight now we\u2019re living in a society of no fear when it comes to college athletics,\u201d said Texas coach Steve Sarkisian. \u201cWhen I break a rule, if I don\u2019t like the fact that I got caught breaking that rule, to go get a judge to say, \u2018Hey, get an injunction, we\u2019ll deal with that a year from now.\u2019 I don\u2019t think that that\u2019s what we want.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get out of that way of thinking and just get to a point of, \u2018Here\u2019s the rules, let\u2019s go try to navigate within the rules and be the best we can be. And if I step out of bounds, here\u2019s your penalty.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s lining up a fanboy judge or pushing for a bigger playoff, the motivation is the same: Whatever is good for my team, my athletic department and my school is all that matters. Whether it damages the entire college sports enterprise is of no concern. Changing that mentality is impossible in a loose confederation of fiefdoms with no central oversight.<\/p>\n More College Football From Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n Listen to SI\u2019s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple<\/a> and Spotify<\/a>. Watch the show on SI\u2019s College YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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