LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Big Ten commissioner doubled down on the league's preference for multiple automatic qualifiers in the next version of the College Football Playoff on Tuesday, increasing the likelihood of a showdown with the Southeastern Conference when the format for 2026 is decided.
At the league's football media days, Tony Petitti said any change that adds at-large bids and increases the discretion and role of a selection committee — a format the SEC and others have shown a preference for — “will have a difficult time getting support of the Big Ten.”
Petitti also bolstered the idea of a weekend's worth of conference play-in games for some of the four automatic bids that would go to the Big Ten in its preferred version of a 16-team playoff. He said the league favored this even though the games could put some of the Big Ten's top-seeded teams in jeopardy of being shut out of the CFP.
The likely slate for that would include a league title game between Nos. 1 and 2 and play-in games involving the 3-6 seeds.
“There are 18 members in the Big Ten, you have 17 possible opponents and you play nine,” Petitti said. “There's a lot of discrepancy. Let alone making comparisons across leagues, there's a lot of issues about how you compare teams inside the Big Ten. ... Where we came down is we were willing to take that risk.”
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, whose team earned the 10th seed in last year's playoff but lost 27-17 to Notre Dame in a game that didn't feel as close as the score, echoed the commissioner's thoughts and pointed out that Ohio State finished fourth in the conference last season and went on to win the national title.
If “you want to put the best teams in the playoffs, give the best leagues the AQ, but make them earn it with play-in games,” Cignetti said.
Though there is a Dec. 1 deadline for expanding the playoff for 2026, Petitti said he wouldn't put any firm date on it. That echoed a sentiment SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey voiced earlier this month when he said the 12-team format, which went into effect last season and offers automatic spots to five conference champions, could stay in place until the two leagues can agree.
Petitti said recent meetings between Big Ten and SEC athletic directors have produced good results on a variety of topics and he expects another such summit would do the same.
“The goal would be to bring people back together, have a conversation about what we think works, then kind of go from there,” he said.
The Big Ten and SEC will ultimately decide the new format, with input from the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences, along with Notre Dame and the five smaller conferences that are part of the system.
At his conference's media days, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said his preference was a format with five automatic bids and the rest at-large, which is also what Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark has said his league favors.
“Fairness and access should also be part of the equation,” Phillips said Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina,, while backing the work of the selection committee that would have a bigger role with up to 11 at-large selections to sort through.
Conferences currently earn $4 million for every team they place in the playoff, and that number could grow, which adds to the stakes of how the next version of the playoff takes form.
Embedded in the debate is the nine-game conference slate the Big Ten plays vs. eight for the SEC. That extra non-conference game, some believe, gives SEC teams a chance to bolster their schedules, which then adds value to any calculation the committee would consider in determining at-large bids.
The SEC is exploring moving to nine conference games.
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman portrayed a Big Ten that is unified around the format of nine regular-season conference games, a new round of play-in games and something like four automatic spots in a 16-team playoff going to both the SEC and Big Ten.
“It means you’re going to have probably eight or nine, maybe ten schools that are jockeying for the fifth and sixth spots as you get into November," Whitman said. "It's so cool, when you just think about what it would mean for our fan bases and the enthusiasm around those games. And it minimizes some of the subjectivity that would be placed around the selection committee.”
AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard contributed.
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FILE - Big Ten Conference commissioner Tony Petitti speaks during a news conference after meetings with the Southeastern Conference, Oct. 10, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A state appeals court will decide whether to dismiss felony voter misconduct charges against an Alaska resident born in American Samoa, one of numerous cases that has put a spotlight on the complex citizenship status of people born in the U.S. territory.
The Alaska Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday in the case against Tupe Smith, who was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. Smith has said she relied on erroneous information from local election officials in the community of Whittier when she identified herself as a U.S. citizen on voter registration forms.
American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and instead are considered U.S. nationals. Paths to citizenship exist, such as naturalization, though that process can be expensive and cumbersome.
American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain U.S. passports and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections.
Smith's attorneys have asked the appeals court to reverse a lower court's decision that let stand the indictment brought against her. Smith's supporters say she made an innocent mistake that does not merit charges, but the state has argued that Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship.
State prosecutors separately have brought charges against 10 other people from American Samoa in Whittier, including Smith’s husband, Michael Pese.
Thursday's arguments centered on the meaning of the word intentionally.
Smith “and others like her who get caught up in Alaska’s confusing election administration system and do not have any intent to mislead or deceive should not face felony voter misconduct charges,” one of her attorneys, Whitney Brown, told the court.
But Kayla Doyle, an assistant attorney general, said that as part of ensuring election integrity, it's important that oaths being relied upon are accurate.
About 25 people gathered on a snowy street outside the Anchorage courthouse before Thursday’s hearing to support Smith. Some carried signs that read, ”We support Samoans.”
State Sen. Forrest Dunbar, a Democrat who attended the rally, said the Alaska Department of Law has limited resources.
“We should be going after people who are genuine criminals, who are violent criminals, or at least have the intent to deceive,” he said.
In a court filing in 2024, one of Smith's previous attorneys said that when Smith answered questions from the Alaska state trooper who arrested her, she said she was aware that she could not vote in presidential elections but was “unaware of any other restrictions on her ability to vote."
Smith said she marks herself as a U.S. national on paperwork. But when there was no such option on voter registration forms, she was told by city representatives that it was appropriate to mark U.S. citizen, according to the filing.
Smith “exercised what she believed was her right to vote in a local election. She did so without any intent to mislead or deceive anyone,” her current attorneys said in a filing in September. “Her belief that U.S. nationals may vote in local elections, which was supported by advice from City of Whittier election officials, was simply mistaken.”
The state has said Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship. Prosecutors pointed to the language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022, which explicitly said that if the applicant was not at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, “do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.”
The counts Smith was indicted on “did not have anything to do with her belief in her ability to vote in certain elections; rather they concerned the straightforward question of whether or not Smith intentionally and falsely swore she was a United States citizen,” Doyle said in a court filing last year.
One of Smith's attorneys, Neil Weare, co-founder of the Washington-based Right to Democracy Project, has said the appeals court could dismiss the case or send it back to the lower court “to consider whether the state can meet the standard it has set forth for voter misconduct.” The state also could decide to file other charges if the case is dismissed, he said.
The court did not give a timeline for when it would issue a ruling.
Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
State Sen. Forrest Dunbar, left, stands with supporters of Tupe Smith gathered Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter misconduct case brought against American Samoa native Tupe Smith by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Supporters of Tupe Smith gather outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter misconduct case brought against American Samoa native Tupe Smith by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Michael Pese and his wife, Tupe Smith, stand outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter fraud case brought against her by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Michael Pese, left, his wife, Tupe Smith, and their son Maximus pose for a photo outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter fraud case brought against her by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
FILE - Tupe Smith poses for a photo outside the school in Whittier, Alaska, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
