College football’s power brokers were meeting in Dallas Tuesday to discuss the future of the sport’s postseason playoff and it would be encouraging if they would all just take a deep breath, hit the pause button and maybe reflect on where they are for 10 or 12 seconds.

OK, that was a bad joke. Fat chance.

That’s not the way it works. Instant gratification is the name of this game, often at a dizzying pace.

The Southeastern Conference and the Big 10 already jumped the gun when those two leagues’ commissioners, along with coaches and athletic directors, met in New Orleans last week.

They didn’t feel the need to invite any of the other conferences.

Maybe it was just to get their stories straight before the SEC’s Greg Sankey and the Big 10’s Tony Petitti headed to Dallas.

There the two big dogs joined with the CFP Management Committee, which consists of all 10 FBS commissioners and the Notre Dame athletic director.

According to Yahoo Sports, the SEC and Big 10 seem to agree on two topics for sure.

To wit:

The expanded 12-team playoff hadn’t even finished its shakedown cruise when the cries were crying out for even more expansion — to 14, maybe 16 teams … why not 64? The more the merrier.

And the seeding. Oh, the seeding. It just didn’t work —the top four seeds, who all got first-round byes, used the extra R&R to all four lose when they finally got on the field.

Well, they’re probably right on that one. It did look a little out of kilter to see Boise State and Arizona State among the top four with the likes of Ohio State, and Texas and Penn State relegated to play-in status. But why no one didn’t see that coming when the original format was hammered out — requiring the top four to be conference champions — is anybody’s guess.

Don’t look for any change immediately.

“All” it would take at this point is a unanimous vote for those 10 commissioners and Notre Dame.

That’s another fat chance.

The vote would likely be 9-2 against the SEC and Big 10.

It’s not all about money, they will try to tell you, except when Big 12 commissioner Bart Yormark told Yahoo Sports, “I do not have the appetite to give up any financial reward that comes with a bye.”

That’d be the extra $8 million a team with a bye (and its conference) gets for that free pass into the quarterfinals (even if the seeding was flawed).

The other conferences aren’t about to give that up carrot on a stick — and don’t have to as long as it only takes one of them to veto any CFP format change.

But they better enjoy it while they can. Don’t get comfortable. That power to the weaker conferences will be short-lived.

That Big 10-SEC meeting in New Orleans? Maybe it was a volley fired across the bow, a warning flare to put the rest of college football on notice that recess is over, that the Big Two will henceforth be calling the shots.

Starting in 2026, the Big 10 and the SEC — just the two of them — will control what the format will look like. That’s an awful lot of responsibility. Supposedly the two will still at least consult with the other conferences and Notre Dame, you know, for input when shaping the playoffs’ long-term future.

Yeah, right.

One would hope that when tough decisions are made the Big 10 and SEC will take into account the overall good health of the game and not just their own leagues’ bank accounts.

Does the term “Make them an offer they can’t refuse” ring a bell?

For instance, one likely proposal seems to be that the two power leagues would be guaranteed four automatic bids apiece for the CFP.

You’d probably need to expand to at least 14 team with that example, reserving the four spots apiece for the SEC and Big 10, two each for the ACC and Big 12, one for the Group of Five and the last for Notre Dame if it qualifies or an at-large if it doesn’t.

It’s not that far-fetched. Last year the Big 10 got four and the SEC got three (and surely would have had a fourth itself in a 14-team playoff).

But do you really want to put it in writing? Most years they’d earn it anyway. Do you really want that optic?

The way it’s going, it’s shaping up to look like two bullies on the playground.

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics for the American Press. You can email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com