Headed into the start of SEC spring meetings, the Big Ten believed it had a partner in its push to transform the College Football Playoff into something more akin to the NFL. The Big Ten and SEC have grown significantly closer over the last year,

Elite opinion inside the SEC appears to be moving away from granting the conference four auto bids in the future College Football Playoff, but it sounds like that’s an idea commissioner Greg Sankey never really liked anyway.

On this edition of " SEC Football Unfiltered ," a podcast from the USA TODAY Network, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams unpack the leading playoff formats under consideration. Here's what the hosts think of the top 16-team formats being debated: What it is: In this model,