Brett Yormark responds to jab from Greg Sankey: 'We all have thick skin here'

Ahead of this week’s annual SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla., SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent an unambiguous message to his fellow Power Four leaders that might be critical of how his league is approaching the future of the College Football Playoff. His message was clear.

“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game — I don’t lecture others about good of the game — or coordinating press releases about the good of the game,” Sankey said. “Ok, you can issue your press statement, but I’m actually looking for ideas to move us forward.”

With all four Power conferences going through their annual Spring meetings in May, there’s been a lot of talk about what the next iteration of the expanded Playoff could look like. That has included plenty of talk about a Big Ten-backed “4-4-2-2-1” 16-team model that would give both the Big Ten and SEC four automatic bids apiece, with the ACC and Big 12 receiving just two bids apiece.

Obviously, those in the ACC and Big 12 have made their opposition to such a proposal well known, even if there were no coordinated press releases as Sankey suggested. Miami coach Mario Cristobal and NC State coach Dave Doeren both publicly rejected the proposal during the ACC Spring Meetings two weeks ago. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told Yahoo! Sports‘ insider Ross Dellenger he remained “steadfast about fairness in the system and access” but opted not to discuss specific proposals “out of respect for my colleagues.”

Brett Yormark on relationship with fellow Power Four commissioners: ‘We’re going to battle’

Now, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark has responded to Sankey’s non-lecture in kind.

“I agreed with Greg’s follow-up statement that I’d be entertained by it, and I was. We all have thick skin here,” Yormark deadpanned Friday, following the conclusion of Big 12 Spring Meetings in Orlando. “But the neat thing about our relationship amongst the (Power Four) commissioners is, we’re going to battle. That’s part of life.

“We’re going to agree to disagree. We’re kind of in that mode right now, but I have a lot of respect for my peers, and I know they have a lot of respect for me and (ACC commish) Jim (Phillips), and we’ll end up in the right place.”

And that place might just be the Big 12-supported “5+11” model that would include 11 at-large bids along with the Power Four champions and the highest-ranked Group of Six winner. Late Tuesday, following the first day of his league’s Spring meetings, Sankey revealed SEC football coaches expressed interest in that particular model, much to Yormark’s amusement.

“It has always been our first choice,” Yormark told ESPN insider Heather Dinich on Wednesday. “It’s fair and rewards on-field performance. I’m not surprised SEC coaches like it.”