ORLANDO, Fla. — Finally, college football’s leaders are having their playoff debate in public — at least in the state of Florida this week.

Up in Destin, the SEC appears to be on its way to adjourning spring meetings on Thursday without a clear consensus on the right College Football Playoff format for 2026 and beyond. The Big Ten-backed model that gives four automatic bids to their two leagues and fewer to everyone else has some SEC support but also some concerns. It’s a format that would be more financially lucrative for the top two conferences, but it has drawn public backlash.

Down in Orlando, the Big 12 brought a more united front to spring meetings with an easier public message: fairness.

Should the Playoff field expand to 16 teams, as is widely expected, the Big 12 (and the ACC) prefer a “5+11” model that simply expands the current CFP, with automatic bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions and 11 at-large bids. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips made the pitch in person to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti at a recent meeting in Charlotte, one of several among the Power 4 leaders.

Will it convince the SEC and Big Ten, which hold majority power over the CFP format starting in 2026, to move away from uneven auto-bids?

“I don’t think 4-4-2-2 is fair,” Yormark told The Athletic on Wednesday. “I just don’t think that model speaks to who we are as a conference and what we mean to college football.”

The Big Ten’s proposed “4-4-2-2” auto-bid heavy model (with one bid for the top-ranked non-Power 4 conference champion and three at-large bids to round out the 16 spots) would give the Big 12 and ACC bids they might not always get otherwise. That’s the sell. But it would codify second-class status for the Big 12 and ACC. In Orlando this week, Yormark and several Big 12 athletic directors told The Athletic the risk of earning a single bid for themselves in a 5+11 model is worth keeping an open field.

“And that’s OK, because we’ve got to earn it on the field,” Yormark said. “I often tell my room, you’re rewarded when you perform at the highest levels. We are investing at a high level in this conference, and we’ll continue to invest. … I’m willing to earn it on the field, and so are my coaches, and so are my ADs.”

Big 12 athletic directors spent all of Wednesday in meetings, including one on the CFP. The coaches will have their meetings on Thursday, but their feeling was similar to the message coming from SEC coaches, who showed some trepidation over automatic bids and play-in games.

“It’s hard for me to just say, because you have a certain patch on your uniform, you get more than somebody else’s patch,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire said.

The SEC and Big Ten hold the power to determine the CFP format from 2026 to ’31 thanks to an agreement all 10 conferences and Notre Dame signed last year that guarantees more than half the revenue for those two. The Big Ten’s position has been staked out: It wants more guaranteed spots, and it would use them to set up a play-in tournament on conference championship weekend.

But Petitti and his constituents have not ruled out considering other models with a large number of at-large selections — especially if the SEC and ACC agree to match the Big Ten and play nine conference games each year.

Which could present a problem: While the SEC wants to put the CFP format ahead of its long-awaited conference schedule decision, the Big Ten would prefer to know what the SEC is doing with its conference schedule before it commits to a CFP format.

“They’ve been at nine and we’ve been at eight, so there hasn’t been a whole lot of influence from them on our decision,” Sankey said. “They’ve made their decision.”

What happens if the Big Ten and the SEC can’t agree on a new format before a December deadline set by ESPN? That is unclear, but perhaps the status quo — 12 teams with five conference champions and seven at-large spots — could be back in play for 2026, with the SEC still playing an eight-game league schedule.

“Sure, I can see a scenario, but is that the most likely scenario?” Sankey said. “Come back for more.”

The Big 12 has made its preference and message clear. A model with unequal auto-bids is unfair and would catalogue the league as lesser-than. The question has been this: Can the Big 12 and ACC convince Sankey and the SEC of something else? The opening might be those at-large spots. They are one reason the CFP expansion conversation moved from 14 teams to 16. Sankey admitted this week that four automatic bids might sell his league short.

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, a former CFP selection committee member, said he doesn’t believe a majority of fans want the auto-bid model, which would be unlike anything else in major American sports. The 5+11 model could put even more SEC or Big Ten teams in the field without helping the Big 12, depending on the rankings in a given year. But the Big 12 has decided it’s better to roll that dice and try to get better, rather than accept an official second-tier status.

“Then Big 12, let’s win more games,” Harlan said. “Let’s get after it.”

— The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo contributed reporting.

(Photo: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)