For the second time in four months, conference leaders from the SEC and Big Ten will meet in person to discuss common ground during a critical decision-making period in college athletics. Wednesday's meeting in New Orleans will include discussions about the House vs. NCAA settlement and future NCAA governance, but it will also include important conversations about the College Football Playoff and what the two most powerful conferences want it to look like moving forward.
In less than a week, the CFP's management committee will meet in Dallas to begin a thorough review of the inaugural 12-team field. Athletic directors in the Big Ten and SEC will first have a chance, though, to express their preferences to their respective commissioners before the Big Ten's Tony Petitti and SEC's Greg Sankey meet with their FBS peers.
"I would imagine that coming out of that Big Ten-SEC meeting that they will come to the table with proposed governance, proposed format -- all of that," one CFP source said. "I think that's everybody's expectation, but I don't expect anything radical that hasn't already been discussed."
While there is no guarantee that any firm decisions will be made, ESPN spoke to multiple sources that included athletic directors, commissioners and CFP sources about what they might learn this week.
Jump to a topic:
Playoff priorities
Home games
Play-in games
Scheduling partnerships