American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti took the podium in Charlotte with a message: stop worrying about who's leaving and start worrying about who's getting a fair shot. It's the same pitch Group of Six commissioners have been making for years, but Pernetti leaned into it hard, framing his league not as a farm system for the Power 4 but as a legitimate football conference that's earned more respect than it gets.
Pernetti opened by touting the American's on-field results against the bigger conferences.
American's Tim Pernetti: "American was top nonautonomy conference. We were the only league that beat teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 & SEC"
That's not just spin. The American has made a habit of beating up on ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC opponents in nonconference play, which is exactly the resume Pernetti wants the College Football Playoff selection committee to weigh more heavily. His ask is straightforward: if the field is going to expand, Group of Six programs should get a bigger cut of the new spots, not just table scraps while the big leagues carve up the growth.
Pernetti laid out his logic for why a bigger CFP field should mean real growth for the Group of Six, not just more Power 4 slots.
American's Tim Pernetti: "If you're going to double the size of the field, why wouldn't you double the size for the Group of 6? If you go to 24 teams, where the hell are you going to play all these games?"
It's a fair argument on paper, but it runs headfirst into the sport's brutal math. Conference realignment already gutted the old Group of Five hierarchy, with the American losing marquee programs in recent cycles, and the portal has made it even harder for leagues like this one to hold onto what they build. Asked directly whether he loses sleep over more schools bolting for other leagues, Pernetti didn't blink.
Asked point-blank about the threat of more teams leaving, Pernetti waved it off.
American's Tim Pernetti asked if he's concerned about any teams leaving for another league: "I don't spend 5 seconds of my day thinking about that."
That confidence is a tough sell next to the numbers Brett McMurphy dropped the same day: 78% of the American's first- and second-team all-conference players from last season transferred to Power 4 schools. It's not a fluke or a one-off exodus, it's the model. Recent transfer-portal data backs it up nationally, with Group of Six programs retaining only around a quarter of their first-team all-conference talent compared to over 80% retention for Power 4 schools, a gap that's only widened as revenue-sharing money piles up at the top.
McMurphy's number cuts against the optimism from the podium.
78 percent of American’s 1st & 2nd team all conference players from last season transferred to Power 4 schools this year
So Pernetti's real fight isn't with realignment rumors, it's with a financial system that lets Power 4 schools pick off his league's best players every offseason like clockwork. He can talk about DC hallway walks and sustainable paths all he wants, but until the American finds a way to actually keep its stars instead of just developing them for someone else, the playoff-access argument is more about survival than ambition. Expanded access matters a lot less if there's no roster left to compete with once the season starts.